Bes with Lute
Description
Object Label: Bes was popularly worshipped as protector of women and infants, and as a facilitator of fertility. Shown standing on the head and shoulders of a woman with a baby, in Bes with Lute the god protects the mother and newborn by driving away potential harm with the sounds of his musical instrument. The large, round ears and facial folds seen on the Finial are reminiscent of a snarling lion and connect Bes with powerful felines. Because Bes was a multifaceted god who offered protection during such times of transition as pregnancy and birth, women wore his images, like the Amulet, while giving birth or during rites of passage. Caption: Bes with Lute, 664–343 B.C.E.. Copper alloy, 4 1/2 × 1 1/16 × 7/8 in. (11.4 × 2.7 × 2.3 cm) With Mount: 8 1/2 × 1 1/16 × 2 1/2 in. (21.6 × 2.7 × 6.4 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 37.921E.
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.
Two views of a small Egyptian bronze/copper-alloy figurine showing Bes, a dwarf/household protector, holding a lute and standing in a dancing or striding pose.
The image shows a photographed antiquity displayed on a pedestal, photographed from two angles (left and right views). The figure is rendered in a compact, dark metal with a stylized, clubby physique and a raised arm posture. The left view shows a Bes-like standing figure with a prominent raised right arm, spread hands, and a patterned or textured torso. The right view shows the figure with a smaller companion/limb-like element at the lower area and a long, narrow neck-like element extending upward, consistent with the handle/shaft of a lute in Bes iconography; a rounded body area is suggested near the upper/midsection. No legible hieroglyphs or inscriptions are visible on the object, and there is no Greek/Coptic/Arabic text in the image. The catalogue title “Bes with Lute” is broadly consistent with the visible Bes-like dwarf form and lute-like elongated element, but the exact lute strings/shape are not fully clear due to the low resolution and patina.
Cross-references (2)
- BKM-Accession 37.921E tier-2
- BKM-Object 117505 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.