Statuette of a Cat
Statuette of a Cat
Place of OriginEgypt
DateLate Period, Dynasty 26, about 600 BCE
DimensionsH. 3 1/2 in. (8.9 cm)
MediumBronze with gold inlays
ClassificationSculpture
Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey
Object number
1967.155
On View
Toledo Museum of Art (2445 Monroe Street), Gallery, 02, Classic
Collections
Published References"La Chronique des Arts," Gazette des Beaux-Arts, vol. 75, no. 1213, Feb. 1970, repr. p. 44, no. 210.
- Sculpture
Peck, William H., Sandra E. Knudsen and Paula Reich, Egypt in Toledo: The Ancient Egyptian Collection at the Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, Toledo Museum of Art, 2011, p. 84, repr. (col.).
Comparative ReferencesSee also Fechheimer, Hedwig, Kleinplastik der Ägypter, Berlin, 1921, plate.cf. Posener, Georges, Dictionary of Egyptian Civilization, New York, 1959, p. 36f.
Label TextCats were sacred to the goddess Bastet and the statues representing her and her sacred animal are among the most appealing animal images to be preserved from ancient Egypt. Bastet protected pregnant women; she was also the pleasure-loving patron of music and dance. In this small statuette, inlaid with gold, her sacred animal wears an amulet in the shape of a wedjat (the eye of Horus) symbolic of completeness (a similar amulet is displayed in this case). Most Bastet cat statuettes served as votive offerings in shrines to the goddess or in tombs.
250-150 BCE
Zhou Dynasty (1045-222 BCE)
Toshiyoshi Jun Min Do
about 1825, Edo Period (1600-1868)
19th century, Edo Period (1600-1868)
1st century BCE-1st century CE
19th century, Edo Period (1600-1868)
about 1450
Hellenistic Greek, possibly Ptolemaic, about 200-100 BCE
Hellenistic Greek, possibly Ptolemaic, about 200-100 BCE
Hellenistic Greek, possibly Ptolemaic, about 200-100 BCE
mid-late 19th century
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