Lion-Shaped Furniture Leg
Description
Object Label: In both Egypt and Nubia the lion was associated with the sun god and symbolized royalty. Because the king was seen as a living embodiment of the sun, leonine images conveyed both connotations. The broad ruff with incised zigzag decoration is characteristic of representations of lions from the Twenty-fifth Dynasty, when Egypt was ruled by Nubian kings. A cartouche of the Kushite king Aspelta, a ruler who resided in the Nubian capital, Napata, appears on the front of the furniture leg. Provenance: Culture Nubian Caption: Nubian. Lion-Shaped Furniture Leg, ca. 690–664 B.C.E.. Wood (Sycamore Fig, Ficus sycomorus), 13 7/8 x 3 9/16 x 5 1/2 in. (35.3 x 9 x 14 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 37.42E. (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.
A carved wooden statue of a seated feline, possibly representing a deity or protective symbol.
The artifact depicts a detailed wooden carving of a seated feline figure, characterized by its attentive posture and stylized fur detailing. The piece likely served a symbolic or protective purpose in ancient Egyptian culture. The carving shows intricate workmanship and has survived with a smooth surface, though it displays signs of age such as minor wear.
Cross-references (2)
- BKM-Accession 37.42E tier-2
- BKM-Object 3950 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.