Lot 33
33
A LATE PERIOD FAIENCE SISTRUM
A LATE PERIOD FAIENCE SISTRUM

DYNASTY XXVI, REIGN OF AMASIS, 570-526 B.C.

Details
A LATE PERIOD FAIENCE SISTRUM
dynasty xxvi, reign of amasis, 570-526 b.c.
The handle, inscribed on both sides for "The good God, the Lord of the Two Lands, Khnum-ib-re" (the Pharaoh Amasis), and naming the goddess Sekhmet accompanied by her epithets, supporting an image of the cow-headed goddess Hathor, her broad collar serving to anchor the handle, with a sun-disk crowned uraeus on either side of her head, the sound box above, now missing its metal rods and disks, decorated with uraei and surmounted by a group with the vulture-goddess Mut embracing a squatting Sekhmet
16.1/8 in. (41 cm.) high

Lot Essay

The large scale of this example and the unusual combination of Mut and Sekhmet as a sculptural group serving as a terminal relates this to rituals of the New Year and the appeasement of the redoubtable goddess upon her return to Egypt. This sums up in miniature the sculptural program of the monumental granite statues of Sekhmet still gracing the open court of the Sanctuary of Mut at Southern Karnak.