PROPERTY FROM THE COLLECTION OF JOHN W. KLUGE SOLD TO BENEFIT COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY

AN EGYPTIAN BRONZE WADJET

THIRD INTERMEDIATE PERIOD, DYNASTY XXI-XXII, 1070-712 B.C.

Details

AN EGYPTIAN BRONZE WADJET
THIRD INTERMEDIATE PERIOD, DYNASTY XXI-XXII, 1070-712 B.C.
The lion-headed goddess depicted squatting with her heels drawn back against her buttocks, in the pose of the goddess Maat, atop a papyrus umbel, her feet on a projecting plinth, her fisted hands at the outside of her knees, perhaps once holding a feather of "truth," wearing an echeloned tripartite wig surmounted by a solar disk, originally fronted by a uraeus, clad in a tightly-fitted sheath, armlets around each bicep, and a broad collar, the plinth held up by a kneeling male figure on his own projecting plinth below, perhaps the god Heh, wearing a kilt and a cap-crown, details finely incised
22½ in. (57.2 cm.) high

Provenance

Private Collection, France, believed to be 1970s-early 1980s, or earlier.
with Jean-Loup Despras, 1989.
with Royal-Athena Galleries, New York, 1990 (Masterworks in Bronze from the Ancient World) and 1992 (Art of the Ancient World, vol. VII, part 1, no. 361).

Literature

J.M. Eisenberg and R.S. Bianchi, Catalogue of the Egyptian and Near Eastern Bronzes in the Collection of John Kluge, New York, 1992, no. 89-82.

Lot Essay

Wadjet's name in hieroglyphs is written with the papyrus umbel character. Because the papyrus plant is the heraldic flower of Lower Egypt, Wadjet served as the tutelary deity of the Delta. As such she became a protectoress of the Pharaoh. The diminutive figure depicted below is likely the god Heh, one of the deities who supports the heavens. His hieroglyphic sign depicts him with the arms raised, as here, and came to mean "millions" and "many" and by extension the wish for the Pharaoh to reign for millions of years.

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