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

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.Published References"La Chronique des Arts," Gazette des Beaux-Arts, vol. 75, no. 1213, Feb. 1970, repr. p. 44, no. 210.

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.