Part of a flail for a statue

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This fragment of a flail belonged to a large Osiris statuette or statue. The beautiful multi-colored glass inlay speaks to the stunning quality and craftsmanship of the original piece, which may have utilized other rich materials like precious metals or stones. The statue was probably made out of wood but would have incorporated bronze elements like this flail, a common technique for high prestige, large, and costly cult images. Because this type of mixed media construction was commonly used, pieces such as these, even in their fragmented state, provide excellent clues about the appearance of large-scale temple statuary made from organic materials, much of which is now degraded and lost. The inlay on the piece also shows how craftsmen played with the chromatic possibilities of different materials to create visually dynamic images.

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