AN EGYPTIAN BRONZE FIGURE OF ISIS AND HARPOKRATES, LATE PERIOD

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AN EGYPTIAN BRONZE FIGURE OF ISIS AND HARPOKRATES, LATE PERIOD This lot is from a single owner collection and is therefore offered without reserve The Jorgen Ruben Gallery Ledger, entry from 2012: “No. 815, Statuette representing Isis and Horus on her knee. Egypt Late Period, Bronze, H.: 19.8 cm. BR 2006” Gallery price: EUR 11,700 or approx. EUR 16,500 adjusted for inflation at the time of writing. Egypt, 664-332 BC. The goddess seated with her feet resting on a low integral plinth, clad in a tightly-fitted sheath, wearing a striated tripartite wig and vulture headdress, its wings spread behind her ears, fronted by a uraeus and crowned with a cobra-modius supporting cow horns framing a solar disk, her face with large lidded eyes, a straight nose and fleshy lips pursed into a slight smile, offering her left breast to her divine son Harpokrates (Horus-the-Child) seated on her lap, his head cradled by her left hand, wearing an amulet, a cap-crown fronted by a uraeus and the side lock of youth. Important Note: For essential information on the Jorgen Ruben Gallery Ledger and provenance documentation please visit here: www.zacke.at/rubencollection_ledger Dimensions: Height 22 cm (incl. tenon, excl. stand), 23.9 cm (incl. stand) With an associated stand. (2) Isis’ name is first attested in the fifth dynasty in the Pyramid texts. She was the wife of Osiris and the mother of Horus, and thus was symbolically mother to the pharaoh. In the Late Period, the popularity of this important goddess dramatically increased. She is nearly always depicted in anthropomorphic form, standing or seated on a throne. This statuette shows the goddess in her most beloved pose, nursing her son Horus (known also as the lactans pose). Other goddesses sometimes nurse Horus or other child gods, but Isis is preeminent among them in this role. She wears the horned crown that by the Late Period she had adopted from the goddess Hathor, as well as the vulture headdress that emphasized the role of goddesses as royal mothers. Horus, meanwhile, wears an amulet on his chest, a common feature for child gods. The large number of statuettes in this particular pose demonstrate some of the qualities for which Isis was most valued in the first millennium BC: her role as a life-giver and protector. These types of statuettes were very common, dedicated not just to Isis cults, but seemingly to many temples and shrines, usually in association with Osiris and the child god Horus. Literature comparison: Compare a closely related bronze Isis and Horus, 19.6 cm high, dated Late Period-Ptolemaic Period, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, object number 45.4.4. Auction result comparison: Type: Closely related Auction: Christie’s New York, 8 June 2004, lot 559 Price: USD 28,680 or approx. EUR 44,500 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing Expert remark: Compare the closely related modeling and manner of casting with similar patina. Note the size (26.6 cm). Auction result comparison: Type: Closely related Auction: Christie’s New York, 9 December 2005, lot 64 Price: USD 54,000 or approx. EUR 81,000 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing Expert remark: Compare the closely related modeling and manner of casting with similar patina. Note the size (30.5 cm).

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