**Originally Listed At $1000**
Egypt, Late Dynastic to Ptolemaic Period, ca. 664 to 30 BCE. An attractive, hand-carved calcite bust fragment of Isis, the wife of Osiris and the goddess of healing, life, rebirth, and magic. Isis presents with her right hand held to her breast - a classic pose of nursing the infant Horus - and has slender arms draped from rounded shoulders. Her countenance is defined by almond-shaped eyes with elongated canthi beneath thin brows, a slender nose, full lips, puffy cheeks, and cupped ears, all beneath a simple tripartite wig. Atop her head is a drilled socket surrounded by a collar that perhaps held a finial in the shape of her signature throne-shaped headdress. An elegant example of one of Egypt's most recognizable goddesses! Size: 1.125" W x 1.3" H (2.9 cm x 3.3 cm); 2.125" H (5.4 cm) on included custom stand.
For a faience example illustrating how Isis holds her hand to her breast while feeding Horus, please see The Metropolitan Museum of Art, accession number 55.121.5: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/548310
Provenance: private New York, New York, USA collection; ex-private New York, New York, USA collection, acquired in the 1970s
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#149214
Condition
This is a fragment of a larger sculpture. Losses to lower body, arms, and section of collar atop head as shown. Minor nicks to body and top of head, with a couple of stable hairline fissures. Light earthen deposits and soft surface patina throughout.