AN EGYPTIAN BRONZE MAAT

THIRD INTERMEDIATE PERIOD TO LATE PERIOD, 21ST-26TH DYNASTY, 1070-525 B.C.

Details

AN EGYPTIAN BRONZE MAAT
THIRD INTERMEDIATE PERIOD TO LATE PERIOD, 21ST-26TH DYNASTY, 1070-525 B.C.
Depicted seated atop an openwork plinth, with her heels drawn back against her buttocks and her feet together, her arms resting on her thighs beneath her vestment, wearing a multi-strand, beaded, broad collar and a tripartite echeloned headcloth, secured with a diadem and fastened at the back of her head, her ears prominent, her square face with striking features including almond-shaped eyes with convex pupils and full pressed-together lips, an opening at the top of her head and on her lap for now-missing separately-made attachments, the plinth decorated on two sides with a Hathor mask adorned with a naos headdress on a pedestal flanked by winged solar uraei, the front and back with royal cartouche flanked by solar uraei
7 3/8 in. (18.7 cm.) high

Provenance

Acquired by the current owner on the Geneva market, 1980.

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Lot Essay

Maat "was not so much a goddess but... the moderator of all things in the universe, the source of equilibrium in the natural realm. She represented the deified concept of world order, balance and harmony" (see pp. 140-141 in A. Capel and G.E. Markoe, eds., Mistress of the House Mistress of Heaven: Women in Ancient Egypt). Due to such a status, Maat was used by Pharaohs and their wives in the New Kingdom especially as votive offerings in temples. For a similar example see no. 69 in Capel and Markoe, eds., op. cit.

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