bavarikon4UDescription
The cat sitting on its hind paws is looking forward with its eyes wide open. The tail is resting on the ground and is wrapped around the body and the paws. The back profile, the shoulders as well as the forehead to nose lines are clearly carved out. Both ears are pierced and were originally adorned with golden earrings.
The cat is a manifestation of the goddess Bastet and thus a peaceful version of the aggressive lion-headed deities such as Sakhmet. Thousands of cat bronzes have been found in Bubastis (East Delta of the Nile, Egypt), the main cult site of Bastet. The sculpture could originally have been mounted on an inscribed wooden or metal base and given as a gift or tribute to the temples or cat necropolises. Or perhaps the bronze figure stood on a box-shaped cat coffin.
Author
Mélanie Flossmann-Schütze, SMÄK