Collection
/
Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art

Head of Isis-Fortuna

1st century B.C.E.– 2nd century C.E.

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Caption

Head of Isis-Fortuna, 1st century B.C.E.– 2nd century C.E.. Marble, 14 x 8 7/16 x 5 1/2 in. (35.5 x 21.5 x 14 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 62.45. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, CUR.62.45_NegB_print_bw.jpg)

Gallery

Not on view

Title

Head of Isis-Fortuna

Date

1st century B.C.E.– 2nd century C.E.

Period

Ptolemaic Period to Roman Period

Geography

Possible place collected: Alexandria, Egypt

Medium

Marble

Classification

Sculpture

Dimensions

14 x 8 7/16 x 5 1/2 in. (35.5 x 21.5 x 14 cm)

Credit Line

Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund

Accession Number

62.45

Rights

Creative Commons-BY

You may download and use Brooklyn Museum images of this three-dimensional work in accordance with a Creative Commons license. Fair use, as understood under the United States Copyright Act, may also apply. Please include caption information from this page and credit the Brooklyn Museum. If you need a high resolution file, please fill out our online application form (charges apply). For further information about copyright, we recommend resources at the United States Library of Congress, Cornell University, Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums, and Copyright Watch. For more information about the Museum's rights project, including how rights types are assigned, please see our blog posts on copyright. If you have any information regarding this work and rights to it, please contact copyright@brooklynmuseum.org.

Frequent Art Questions

  • Can you tell me a little more about this piece?

    Sure! The head on the top is the goddess Isis-Fortuna. In the Hellenistic and Roman periods, there was a cross-connecting of Egyptian and Greco-Roman deities. Isis is a popular Egyptian goddess (many images of her can be found around the galleries) and she gained a great deal of popularity outside of Egypt!
    The other goddess, Fortuna, was a Roman goddess associated with fertility and fate. For contemporary audiences, the combination of these two deities made sense. She can be identified by the headdresses, which features feathers and a moon disk.
    Thank you!

  • Would you say this style of art greatly influenced Egyptian art from then on? It looks like some statues, though clearly Egyptian are more...Classical?

    It was definitely a melding of cultures and art and iconographic styles. Egyptian aesthetics were retained in most cases but there was a whole new source of artistic traditions and techniques flooding in. Its fun to compare and contrast how Egyptian art changed through time. You can traces the evolution from the Old Kingdom through the Middle and New Kingdom and then the Roman period!
    Okay. Thank you very much!

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