Cleveland Museum of Art
Statuette of Harpocrates
- Date
- c. 50 BCE
- Medium
- bronze, hollow cast, with silver inlays
- Culture
- Greece, Greco-Roman Period, late Ptolemaic Dynasty
- Department
- Greek and Roman Art
- Institution
- Cleveland Museum of Art
- Object ID
- 147036
From the Cleveland Museum of Art record
Combining Hellenistic naturalism with a finger gesture associated with childhood in Egyptian tradition, this young figure represents Harpocrates, the Greek form of the Egyptian child sun god Horus, or Hor-pa-khred. A hole atop his head likely once held a double crown of Egypt, as on more traditionally Egyptian representations of Harpocrates. The gesture this figure makes refers to the Egyptian hieroglyph for child, nn , 𓀁.
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Provenance & credit
As published by the source institution. Coverage varies — not every institution's open-data feed includes ownership history.
- Credit line
- Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund
- Provenance
- –1972: Robert Hecht (1919–2012), New York, NY (said by Hecht to have been purchased from a family in England in whose possession it had been for about a century. Said by Hecht to have been brought from Egypt c. 1870) | 1972: The Cleveland Museum of Art
Part of a LinkedCulture topic
Ancient Egyptian Personal ObjectsThese objects are cosmetic implements and grooming tools from ancient Egypt, including mirrors, palettes for grinding pigments, and decorative knives, representing daily life and personal adornment practices.
476 objects from 5 institutions
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