Scarab

Artist Ptolemaic Period (Ancient Egyptian, 304–30 BCE)

Artist Roman Period (Ancient Egyptian, 30 BCE - 330 CE)

Place of Originprobably from Meir or Tuna el-Jebel, Egypt

Dateabout 50 BCE-50 CE

DimensionsGlass Dimensions: 4 × 2 3/8 × 5/8 in. (10.2 × 6 × 1.6 cm)

Mediumglass

ClassificationGlass

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1970.3A-E

On View

Toledo Museum of Art (2445 Monroe Street), Gallery, 02, Classic

DescriptionBody and legs cast separately in open, one-piece molds; cut and polished on all upper surfaces; also cut along all side edges to create smooth surfaces that are beveled inward; underside of body left unfinished with visible stress marks and creases Inlay in the likeness of a large scarab. Opaque medium blue ground. Upperside of scarab convex, with a well-defined head and body, carefully cut to depict mandibles and protruding eyes, a broad double-lobed thorax, and rounded abdomen covered by two parallel sheath wings. Each wing is defined by straight parallel cut lines with curving lines cut along the outer edges of each wing. The end of each leg is cut in the shape of the insect's chela. The underside of the body is concave with a uniform thickness throughout; the undersides of the legs are flat and roughly polished.

Label TextMade for a tomb, this large scarab beetle (represented with only four legs instead of six) adorned the headdress of a mummy mask. Craftsmen fashioned it of dark blue glass to imitate the costly stone lapis lazuli; it was probably flanked by gilded or painted wings to represent Khepri—god of the rising sun and potent symbol of life after death.Published ReferencesCollection de feu Omar Pasha Sultan, le Caire, Paris, 1929, no. 604, pl. 71.

Luckner, Kurt, "The Art of Egypt," Toledo Museum of Art Museum News 14, 1971, pp. 71 and 73, fig. 13.

Grose, David F., Early Ancient Glass: Core-formed, Rod-Formed, and Cast Vessels and Objects from the Late Bronze Age to the Early Roman Empire, 1600 B.C. to A.D. 50, New York, Hudson Hills Press in association with the Toledo Museum of Art, 1989, cat. no. 63, p. 92, repr. (col.) p. 72.

Dolez, Albane, Glass Animals: 3,500 Years of Artistry and Design, New York, 1988, p. 16, repr.

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. 97, repr. (col.).

Exhibition HistoryToledo Museum of Art, The Egypt Experience: Secrets of the Tomb, 2010-2012.