Figure of the Apis Bull

Description The Apis bull was associated with the creator god Ptah and with the rituals for the king. His main place of worship was Memphis. After the death of the Apis bull he was mummified and buried in a special cemetery. Figures of Apis bulls were donated during the Late Period and Ptolemaic period into temples. This bronze figure displays the bull on a base. He has a sun-disk between his horns combined with a uraeus (cobra serpent). The carving on its body displays a collar, a winged sun-disk on the shoulders, and a cloth with a hatched pattern on the back.

Conservation

Date	Description	Narrative
9/17/1959	Treatment	cleaned
5/10/1995	Loan Consideration	examined for loan
1/02/1997	Examination	examined for condition
10/11/2011	Treatment	cleaned

Exhibitions

• Egypt in Africa. Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis. 1996.

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

Inscriptions [Translation] The Apis, the Horus, giving life (to) Pesometik, son of Pedy-wesr, made of Neb-hetef

Credit Acquired by Henry Walters