Description
This solid cast bronze figurine served as a votive offering, and represents the Canaanite war god, Baal, bringer of the autumnal rains and suppressor of the destructive flood waters. He probably wore a gold skirt and may have carried a mace in one of his clenched fists.
Provenance
J. Gilbert, Paris, by 1903, [mode of acquisition unknown]; Sale, Collection de M. J. Gilbert, Antiquités recueillies en Syrie, Paris, 23-34 Jan. 1903; Dr. S. Pozzi, Paris, [date and mode of acquisition unknown]; Sale, Dr. S. Pozzi collection, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 26-27 June 1919, no. 379 [said to be from "Chebaa, Judee"]; Dikran Kelekian, New York and Paris, [date and mode of acquisition unknown]; Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1928, by purchase; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.