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Metropolitan Museum of Art — Egyptian Art (Open Access) · statue

Royal bust with atypical snake

Source of record: Metropolitan Museum of Art — Egyptian Art (Open Access) — catalogued by the holding institution. View the original record →

Description

Sculptor's model/votive, royal bust with atypical snake. Late Period–Ptolemaic Period, Dynasty 30, 400–200 B.C. Alabaster (gypsum). H. 12 cm (4 3/4 in.); W. 10 cm (3 15/16 in.); D. 4.3 cm (1 11/16 in.). From: Egypt. Subject: Portraits, Snakes. Credit: Gift of Mrs. William H. Moore, 1947.

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 carved Egyptian royal-style bust in a smooth light stone shows a stylized face with a tripartite wig and broad striped headdress/royal collar elements over the chest.

The object appears to be a front-facing bust of a king or royal figure carved in a pale, fine-grained stone. The head has a stylized wig arrangement with a central raised element on the forehead and a broad, horizontally banded headdress/striped surface behind the head. The face has closed/neutral eyes with painted or incised outlines, a straight nose, and a small mouth. Ear areas are visible with simplified ear contours. The shoulders and upper chest are carved with thick symmetrical collar/garment forms; the outer edges show darkened staining or age-related discoloration. A patterned, striped treatment on the background/headdress and on the collar/shoulder elements is prominent. No clearly legible hieroglyphic text, cartouches, or inscriptions are visible in the image, and no snake motif is clearly identifiable in this photograph despite the catalogue title mentioning an atypical snake.

royal Late Period–Ptolemaic Period (consistent with catalogue) good
Materials alabaster (gypsum)

Connections

Materials Alabaster

Cross-references (4)

  • Wikidata-Q Q116242987 tier-1
  • Collection-QID Q160236 tier-2 (wikidata-mediated)
  • Inventory-Number 47.13.2 tier-2 (wikidata-mediated)
  • MET-Object 545990 tier-2 (wikidata-mediated)
About this record's data
  • From the source institution — accession, description, dimensions, and dating are as catalogued by Metropolitan Museum of Art — Egyptian Art (Open Access).
  • 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.