Statue of Horus

CC0 Public Domain Designation

Ptolemaic Period (332–30 BCE)

Egyptian

From the appearance of the first kings in Egypt (about 3000 BCE), the ruler was considered to be the earthly manifestation of Horus, the god of divine kingship. Statues of Horus in the form of a falcon like this one were displayed in temples as part of the royal cult, which celebrated the ruler’s role as an intercessor between humans and gods.

Status: On View, Gallery 50
Department: Arts of Africa

Culture: Ancient Egyptian
Title: Statue of Horus
Place: Egypt (Object made in)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 305 BCE–30 BCE
Medium: Basalt
Dimensions: 52 × 48.5 × 18.8 cm (20 1/2 × 19 × 7 3/8 in.)
Credit Line: Gift of the Alsdorf Foundation
Reference Number: 2002.632
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/180206/manifest.json

Snite Museum of Art , Selected Works from the Snite Museum of Art (South Bend: University of Notre Dame Press, 1987), p. 51 (ill.).
Roberta Casagrande-Kim, ed., When the Greeks Ruled Egypt: From Alexander the Great to Cleopatra. Exh. cat. (New York: Institute for the Study of the Ancient World; Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2014), p. 26, fig. 1-12, p. 101 (cat. 107).

On loan to Art Institute of Chicago, Ancient Art Galleries (132.1966), 1966-1980.
On loan to Snite Gallery of Art, University of Notre Dame, Indiana, 1980-2002.
Art Institute of Chicago, Ancient Art Galleries, McKinlock Court, galleries 153 & 154, April 2003 - February 2012.
Art Institute of Chicago, Ancient Art Galleries, Gallery 154A, April 20, 1994 - February 6, 2012.
Art Institute of Chicago, When the Greeks Ruled: Egypt After Alexander the Great, October 31, 2013 - July 27, 2014; traveled to New York, NY, Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, October 8, 2014 - January 4, 2015.
Art Institute of Chicago, Life and Afterlife in Ancient Egypt, Feb. 11, 2022 - present.

Jeanette Brun (dealer), Zürich, by 1966 [copy of letter to James W. Alsdorf dated November 21, 1966 in curatorial file]; sold to James W. Alsdorf, Chicago, 1966; given to the Art Institute, 2002.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.