This amulet takes the form of a goddess seated on a throne, holding her infant son on her lap. Clothed in an ankle-length dress, the goddess wears a Double Crown atop her long, tripartite wig, which has been colored black in stark contrast to the overall blue-green hue of the faience amulet. The boy wears a wig with a side lock on the right—a traditional hairstyle for children in ancient Egypt. Although the mother places her right hand to her breast, encouraging the child to nurse, he does not turn toward her. The resulting pose—with the child shown facing forward on his own axis, perpendicular to that of his mother—was an enduring sculptural form in ancient Egypt that dates back to the Old Kingdom, more than 1,000 years before this amulet was produced.^[1]1

Most ancient Egyptian representations of a woman with a child on her lap depict the goddess Isis and her son Horus.^[2] Here the identity of the goddess is complicated by her headwear: instead of a headdress in the form of lyre-horns or a throne, both of which are characteristic of Isis, the goddess wears the Double Crown with two uraei. The Double Crown, which was closely associated with Egyptian kings, was also a common attribute of the goddess Mut who—together with Amun and their son Khonsu—formed the divine triad centered in Thebes (now Luxor). A similar amulet in the form of a woman with the Double Crown suckling a child is specifically labeled “Mut Mistress of Isheru.”^[3] While the Art Institute’s example is uninscribed, its iconography strongly suggests that it, too, must portray Mut and her son, rather than Isis and Horus.^[4]2

Both sides of Mut’s throne are adorned with a pair of Nehebkau figures (for an amulet of Nehebkau, see cat. 73). This decoration was executed using the labor-intensive openwork technique in which raw faience was removed from areas of negative space prior to firing. The addition of purple-black glaze to the diminutive snake-headed deities on the throne further enhances the design. The back of the throne is undecorated. This amulet is very similar in technique and size to that of the seated Sekhmet (cat. 78), which also exhibits openwork on the throne and cut out areas under the goddess’s arms, behind her legs, and between her feet.^[5] A loop for attaching the amulet was once located at the back of Mut’s head, bridging the back of her crown and wig, but it has broken away. The original context of the amulet cannot be established, but the discovery of another amulet representing an enthroned goddess clad in the Double Crown and holding an infant in her lap in the burial of a woman in Matmar (Upper Egypt) demonstrates the value such amulets held even after death.^[6]3

Additional Views of Cat. 75

For more on amulets, see About Amulets.4

Provenance

German Consul, Luxor, Egypt; sold to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1892.5

Publication History

Thomas George Allen, A Handbook of the Egyptian Collection (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1923), 127 (identified as Isis and Horus).6

Roberta Casagrande-Kim, ed., When the Greeks Ruled Egypt: From Alexander the Great to Cleopatra, with contributions by Mary C. Greuel et al., exh. cat. (New York: Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, 2014), 52, fig. 3-7; 98, no. 82 (identified as Isis and Horus).
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