Bust of a Saint
Description
Object Label: It is probable that these four examples of Christian art were made for religious buildings rather than tombs. The capital, which would have decorated the top of a small column, has slots to hold the walls of a chapel. The bust of an unnamed saint, shown blessing his viewers, may represent the patron saint of a church or monastery. The pair of reliefs shows saints who are little known today. St. Sissinios is apparently shown killing his sister, whose daughter had been taken over by the devil. St. Thekla, who was converted to Christianity by St. Paul, is being martyred by two crudely rendered lions. Caption: Coptic. Bust of a Saint, 4th–5th century C.E.. Limestone, pigment, 8 1/4 x 10 15/16 x 4 1/8 in. (21 x 27.8 x 10.5 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 55.2.3. (Photo: Brooklyn Museum)
AI image analysis GPT-4o-2024-08-06
Machine-generated from the object's image on May 2026. Not curatorial; treat deities, names, and signs below as the model's best reading, not authority.
Limestone relief depicting a bearded figure with a raised hand.
The relief is carved from limestone, portraying a figure with prominent eyes and a beard. The figure is adorned in a garment with visible lines indicating folds. The background is roughly hewn with a partial face visible on the right. The stylistic features suggest a focus on religious or symbolic representation.
Cross-references (2)
- BKM-Accession 55.2.3 tier-2
- BKM-Object 124486 tier-2
About this record's data
- From the source institution — accession, description, dimensions, and dating are as catalogued by Brooklyn Museum — Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art.
- AI-inferred — the image-analysis panel (deities, names, signs) is machine-generated and may be wrong.
- Approximate location — most map points are plotted at the site centroid, not the exact findspot.
- Inferred links — cross-references marked with a match method other than explicit-source-field were matched by us, not stated by the source.