Finial with nemes and crowned figure, probably Osiris

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This object in its form as a figural finial for furniture or a stand belongs to a Greco-Roman tradition. Most images of the god Osiris in Greco-Roman period are either typical images of the mummiform god or images of Osiris of Canopus where the god takes the form of a jar. But it has been argued that some figures of a male in shendyt kilt and nemes seen in Isaic contexts outside Egypt represent Osiris because they appear against or as pillars. While Egyptologists recognize that historically in Egypt such architectonic figures in fact represented kings, it is difficult to evaluate the understanding of such figures by the Greco-Roman Period and made for Isaic cults. But on the basis of that theory, the bust rising out of the floral element here has been identified as Osiris.

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