MIDDLE KINGDOM, DYNASTY XII-EARLY DYNASTY XIII, 1991-1600 B.C.

細節

AN EGYPTIAN FAIENCE DOG
MIDDLE KINGDOM, DYNASTY XII-EARLY DYNASTY XIII, 1991-1600 B.C.
Bright blue with black spots, standing on short legs, with a curled tail, a short muzzle and rounded ears, leaning slightly back, on an integral rectangular plinth
2 3/8 in. (6 cm.) long

來源

German Private Collection, 1970s.

拍品專文

The inclusion of small dog amulets in Middle Kingdom burials must have had symbolic meaning. According to Kozloff (p. 85 in Mottahedeh, ed., Out of Noah's Ark, Animals in Ancient Art from the Leo Mildenberg Collection) the dog is connected with the myth of Isis, who was accompanied by dogs during her search for the body of Osiris. The dog is also associated with the star Sirius/Sothis, which announced the flooding of the Nile. Friedman (p. 220 in Gifts of the Nile, Ancient Egyptian Faience) suggests that these faience dogs may have been a treasured reminder of an ordinary person's pet during life, serving now as a watchdog in the afterlife. The breed of the dog represented cannot be identified, but it is thought (Friedman, op. cit.) that it is a forerunner of the African Basenji.