Statuette of a Sphinx from a Barque Standard
Third Intermediate Period, late Dynasty 21–Dynasty 22, about 984–715 BCE
- Medium
- Copper alloy
- Classification
- Sculpture
- Dimensions
- 21.8 × 3.1 × 16.6 cm (8 9/16 × 1 3/16 × 6 1/2 in.)
- Culture
- Egypt
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago, Arts of Africa
- Credit line
- Purchased with funds provided by Norman W. Harris, Robert H. Fleming, Henry H. Getty, and Charles L. Hutchinson
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Kids profiles and older: it shows nature, places, still life or a children's book. How works are placed
View at the Art Institute of Chicago
About this work
The creature here combines a ferocious lion’s body with a king’s head to form a divine guardian called a sphinx. Small metal sphinxes like this one were affixed to barques (boats) that carried the cult statues of gods and goddesses when they were brought out of their temples during religious festivals. Here, two rearing cobras flank the sphinx’s paws to help it ward off threats to the deity whose statue was set in a shrine at the center of the barque, shielded from view.
Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0
