Figure of Bes with Child
Description
Object Label: The dangers of childbirth could be reduced by having images of the god Bes in the tomb. Bes protected women during delivery and then assured the safety of newborn children. Images of Bes were often placed in tombs for both reasons. They ensured the deceased’s safety during rebirth into the next world, a main function of Egyptian tombs. Bes had a lion’s head and mane and wore a feather headdress. The spots on this figurine suggest the leopard skin Bes sometimes wore. Caption: Figure of Bes with Child, ca. 1075–656 B.C.E.. Faience, 7 1/2 x 2 7/8 x 5/8 in. (19.1 x 7.3 x 1.6 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 08.480.4. (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 faience amulet depicting the protective deity Bes.
This artifact is a faience amulet featuring the deity Bes, known for his protective qualities in ancient Egyptian mythology. The amulet shows Bes with a feathered headdress, characteristic of his iconography. The craftsmanship indicates skillful use of faience to achieve detailed texture and coloration, especially in the depiction of the feathers and facial features.
Cross-references (2)
- BKM-Accession 08.480.4 tier-2
- BKM-Object 19078 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.