Box for a Mummified Animal with Cobra Figure
Late Period–Ptolemaic Period (664–30 BCE)
- Medium
- Copper alloy
- Classification
- Sculpture
- Dimensions
- 8.4 × 4.1 × 8.7 cm (3 5/16 × 1 5/8 × 3 7/16 in.)
- Culture
- Egypt
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago, Arts of Africa
- Credit line
- Purchased with funds provided by Henry H. Getty and Charles L. Hutchinson
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Teens profiles and older: its subject is for older viewers (war, death, the Passion, drink or the like). How works are placed
View at the Art Institute of Chicago
About this work
The body of this rearing cobra figure is supported by an ostrich feather, the symbol of the goddess Maat, who personified truth and justice. The box below (now empty) once contained a mummified animal. Ancient Egyptians presented objects like this in temples as votive gifts to gods and goddesses, tailoring the enclosed mummified animal to one that had a specific connection with the deity whose favor was sought. Such a gift in a sacred space could help ensure that the prayer would be received. The hieroglyphic inscription on the front of this box names the man who dedicated it and invokes Atum, a creator god whom the ancient Egyptians sometimes depicted in the form of a snake.
Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0
