Lioness-Headed Goddess

Description The lustrous blue glaze on this example of Egyptian faience (a silica-based ceramic that does not include clay but is more like glass) imitated the tones of turquoise, which was imported from the Sinai Peninsula. Egyptian faience was inexpensive to produce, but the results were so beautiful that it was used for even very prestigious objects. The lioness-headed goddess probably Wadjet, is seated on a throne, her left hand holding a papyrus-scepter in front of her body. A loop, which clarifies the function of the small statuette as a pendant, is behind her back.

Provenance Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1930 [mode of acquisition unknown]; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.

Credit Acquired by Henry Walters, 1930