Head of a woman

Head of a woman

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Together the hairstyle and faience material suggest the original figure may have belonged to one of the women who belong to the entourage of Hathor and other great goddesses, often depicted in erotic groups along with Harpokrates and priests. The underlying religious themes have to do with impregnation of a goddess and birth of a new divine child. At festivals celebrating such unions and progeny these small images insistently focused attention on the essentiial sexual act, and in wishes for personal fertility also served as evocations of mythical precedents.

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.