no image
WALTERS-EG
Walters Art Museum (Egyptian) · statue
Figure of the Apis Bull
Description
<p>The Apis bull was associated with the creator god Ptah and with the rituals for the king. His main place of worship was Memphis. After the death of the Apis bull he was mummified and buried in a special cemetery. Figures of Apis bulls were donated during the Late Period and Ptolemaic period into temples. This bronze figure displays the bull on a base. He has a sun-disk between his horns combined with a uraeus (cobra serpent). The carving on its body displays a collar, a winged sun-disk on the shoulders, and a cloth with a hatched pattern on the back.</p><p>For the latest information about this object, <cite><a href='https://purl.thewalters.org/art/54.538' rel='external'>Figure of the Apis Bull</a></cite>, visit the Online Collection of the Walters Art Museum.</p>
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 bronze figure of a bull with a raised foreleg, shown in profile, standing on a rectangular base.
The image shows a dark bronze animal sculpture on a simple rectangular pedestal. The bull’s head is turned to the right with a pronounced muzzle and horns; the body has incised/detailed surface treatment around the torso. The legs are rendered with minimal modeling but clear stance (one foreleg lifted). The pedestal/base has a small panel with what appear to be hieroglyphic-like marks or a decorative register; however, no fully legible text is clearly identifiable at this resolution. No cartouches are visible. No modern inscriptions, Greek, Coptic, or Arabic text is apparent.
royal
ancient Egyptian (exact period unknown/unclear)
good
Deities
Apis (as the sacred bull)
Materials
bronze
Signs
incised decorative/hieroglyphic-like marks on base (partially legible)
Inscriptions (1)
Inscription #1
English description
[Translation] The Apis, the Horus, giving life (to) Pesometik, son of Pedy-wesr, made of Neb-hetef
Cross-references (2)
- Walters-AccNum 54.538 tier-2
- Walters-id 22399 tier-2
Similar inscriptions · by content embedding
About this record's data
- From the source institution — accession, description, dimensions, and dating are as catalogued by Walters Art Museum (Egyptian).
- 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.