Nude crouching figure wearing a wreath, large phallus broken away

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The small figure wearing a leafy crown crouches with his knees raised on either side of a large broken away area; the broken element was an oversized phallus based on traces and many parallels. The identity of the figure is unclear, but is likely connected with the complex of informal statuary including many ithyphallic figures in the Late and Ptolemaic Periods. In general these informal figurines are thought to be connected with festivals celebrating a divine birth.

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