Pectoral Fragment

Pectoral Fragment

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This fragmentary pectoral is made in a greenish blue faience. The decoration in low relief shows a standing man, his arms upraised in an attitude of adoration, in front of Anubis, the god of embalming, here represented as a recumbent jackal. The blue-green color had a regenerative significance for the ancient Egyptians, explaining why objects made in blue and green faience were used for the burial equipment. Made from a mold, without personalized details (like the deceased’s name), objects such as this pectoral could be described as mass-produced.

Egyptian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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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.