Brooklyn Museum — Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art · statue

Seated Cat

Source of record: Brooklyn Museum — Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art — catalogued by the holding institution. View the original record →

Description

Object Label: This figure probably represents Bastet, the goddess most often depicted as a cat. Feline images of her began in Dynasty XXII (circa 945–718 B.C.) and became extremely numerous in the Late Period. Like this figure, many of the finer bronze cats have a scarab on the head, a wadjet-eye on the chest, and pierced ears probably intended for loops of gold. Caption: Seated Cat, 664–343 B.C.E.. Bronze, 5 1/4 × 1 5/8 × 4 in. (13.3 × 4.1 × 10.2 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Mrs. Nasli Heeramaneck, 78.243.

AI image analysis GPT-5.4-nano

Machine-generated from the object's image on Jul 2026. Not curatorial; treat deities, names, and signs below as the model's best reading, not authority.

A small dark bronze figurine of a seated Egyptian cat, shown in profile facing right with erect ears and a curled tail resting near the body.

The image shows a three-dimensional, dark metal object on a plain light background. The subject is a cat sitting upright on its base, with both front legs close together and the head turned to the right. The cat has tall pointed ears, a defined muzzle and eye area, and a smooth, streamlined body. A tail curls down and around near the feet/base. The surface appears slightly worn/patinated with subtle highlights from lighting. No inscriptions or carved hieroglyphs are visible on the figure in this view. No cartouches or royal names are present. No visible Greek/Coptic/Arabic text appears. Materials appear to be bronze based on the dark metallic look, consistent with the catalogue; however, no definitive markings are visible to confirm beyond appearance.

decorative Late Period (as catalogued); specific dynasty unknown from image alone good
Materials bronze (dark patinated metal)

Connections

Deities BastetWadjet

Cross-references (2)

  • BKM-Accession 78.243 tier-2
  • BKM-Object 3874 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.