Furniture support: female sphinx with Hathor-style curls

Furniture support: female sphinx with Hathor-style curls

Unknown artist

Details

Dimensions
5 3/16 × 1 5/8 × 1 7/8 in. (13.2 × 4.2 × 4.8 cm)
Holding institution
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
License
CC0-1.0
Credit
Gift of George D. Pratt, 1932

Art Genome Taxonomy

8 tags

Subject Matter

  • The catalog identifies the subject as a sphinx, and the image shows a human-headed figure combined with an animal-like body and paws.

Medium and Techniques

  • Sculpture Visual · 91%

    The object is a fully three-dimensional carved figural support with modeled facial features, body, paws, and raised side details.

  • Carving Visual · 98%

    The figure and its raised ornamental details are visibly formed through carving rather than assembly or modeling in a soft medium.

Time Periods

  • Ancient Art Metadata · 99%

    The catalog dates the object to circa the 18th century BCE, placing it within ancient art.

Geographic Regions

  • The object is associated with an Old Assyrian Trading Colony and cataloged within Ancient West Asian Art; this supports a broad Middle Eastern regional association, although no modern geographic location is supplied.

Materials

  • Ivory Metadata · 99%

    The museum catalog specifies hippopotamus ivory as the primary material.

  • Gold Both · 98%

    The catalog specifies gold foil, and the image visibly shows surviving gilded areas around the head, curls, and body.

Furniture and Lighting

  • Furniture Both · 97%

    The catalog classifies the object as a furniture support, and its upright plinth-and-support format is visible in the image.

Source & rights

Unknown artist. Furniture support: female sphinx with Hathor-style curls. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.