Right Eye from an Anthropoid Coffin
Description
Object Label: Egyptians described their gods as having gold skin and lapis-lazuli hair, eyebrows, and eyelids. Thus, the colorful glass of this eye imitates the costly blue stone, implying that the deceased passed all the necessary ordeals and is now among the gods and equated with Osiris. The blue glass encases a stone white of the eye, which contains a separately carved black pupil. A minute detail of a trace of red paint on the inner canthus (or corner) of the eye adds yet another naturalistic touch. The wedge-shaped convex eye undoubtedly made the coffin appear more realistic by drawing attention to the gaze. Caption: Right Eye from an Anthropoid Coffin, 1539–30 B.C.E.. Obsidian, crystalline limestone, glass, 13/16 x 2 5/16 x 1 in. (2.1 x 5.8 x 2.6 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 37.1951E. (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.
An amulet depicting the Eye of Horus, a symbol of protection.
The artifact is a faience amulet representing the Eye of Horus, characterized by a distinct blue and black design. Known for its protective qualities, the Eye of Horus, also referred to as the 'Wedjat,' was commonly used in ancient Egypt in various amulets and jewelry. The design is simple yet stylistically significant, featuring clean lines and a smooth finish, typical of Egyptian amulets.
Cross-references (2)
- BKM-Accession 37.1951E tier-2
- BKM-Object 118455 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.