BRONZE SEKHMET

BRONZE SEKHMET

Egyptian art, Ptolemaic period, 332–30 B.C.

A votive statuette depicting the lion-headed goddess standing on a square base, arms at her sides, dressed in a long, form-fitting robe, wearing the tripartite headdress surmounted by the solar disk and the uraeus. On the base, a hieroglyphic inscription reads: “May Sekhmet grant life to Padiousir, son of Hor (?)”.

Height: 12.7 cm

Provenance: Private collection, acquired on the London art market in the late 1970s–early 1980s, then passed down through the family

Christie’s, London, April 28, 2009: Lot 139 (ill.)

Christian Levett Collection, Musée d’Art Classique de Mougins

Exhibitions: Musée d’Art Classique de Mougins (MACM), Mougins, France, June 2011–August 2023 (Inv. No. MMoCA254)

Bibliography: Christie’s, Antiquities including the Plesch Collection of Ancient Glass, London, April 28, 2009, lot 139

P. Clayton, “Ancient Egypt” in M. Merrony (ed.), Mougins Museum of Classical Art, France, 2011, p. 43, fig. 15

M. Merrony, “L’Ancienne Égypte” in M. Merrony (ed.), Mougins Museum of Classical Art, The Levett Family Collection, France, 2012, p. 23

C. Dauphin, Animals in the Ancient World. The Levett Bestiary, Levett Collection Series 2, France, 2014, p. 27

C. Dauphin, Animals in the Ancient World. The Levett Bestiary, Levett Collection Series 2, France, 2016, p. 27, fig. 23, and p. 79

An Egyptian bronze figure of Sekhmet,

Ptolemaic Period, 332–30 B.C.