Hand of a Seated Deity

Hand of a Seated Deity

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This larger-than-life left hand is sculpted granite or granodiorite and is probably a fragment from a divine statue. The position of the fingers are traditional for divine statuary and suggests that they once held an ankh sign (for comparisons, see the Museum’s statues of the lion goddess Sakhmet). The ankh sign symbolized life as one of the benefits dispensed by the gods and goddesses.

Egyptian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Hand of a Seated DeityHand of a Seated DeityHand of a Seated DeityHand of a Seated DeityHand of a Seated Deity

The Met collection of ancient Egyptian art consists of approximately 30,000 objects of artistic, historical, and cultural importance, dating from about 300,000 BCE to the 4th century CE. A signifcant percentage of the collection is derived from the Museum's three decades of archaeological work in Egypt, initiated in 1906 in response to increasing interest in the culture of ancient Egypt.