Gazelle

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This delicate ivory gazelle stands on a wooden pedestal with inlaid decoration depicting plants that allude to its semi-desert habitat. The gazelle has its head erect and appears alert, as though sensing danger. Egyptian artists were keen observers of the world and produced many naturalistic images of the creatures around them. The gazelle's ears have broken off and the horns, made separately and probably of another material, are missing.

Egyptian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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.

Metropolitan Museum of Art