Osiris

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The wrapped body, scepters, and white crown characterize Osiris, and appear on innumerable copper alloy statues from the first millennium BCE. Notably, however, this statuette has facial features that recall early Ramesside royal sculpture, such as a curving nose, and a wide slightly smiling mouth. These stylistic features indicate it is one of the still relatively rare copper alloy figures that date to the early centuries of the first millennium BCE, when the nineteenth dynasty (ca. 1295-1184 BCE) represented the model of choice. Traces of inlays are preserved in the eyes, brows, beard straps and scepters. The beard itself is missing. At the crown and foot and at certain points of damage in the surface the fine-grained grayish casting core inside the statue can be seen. This statue provides a remarkably preserved illustration of ancient Egyptian casting technique, discussed in detail on the Conservation and Scientific Analysis tab.

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