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

Cat Statuette intended to contain a mummified cat

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

Description

Statuette, cat. Ptolemaic Period, 332–30 BCE. Leaded bronze. H. 27.4 × W. 11.9 × D. 23.3 cm, 2.5 kg (10 13/16 × 4 11/16 × 9 3/16 in., 5.5 lb.); With tangs: H. 32 cm (12 5/8 in.); With mount: 3.7 kg (8.2 lb.). From: Egypt. Subject: Cats. Credit: Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1956.

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 seated cat statuette, rendered in green patinated metal, with an arched back and upright ears, facing left.

The image shows a small bronze/metal statuette of a cat sitting upright on a rectangular plinth. The cat’s head is turned to the left (from the viewer’s perspective), with large pointed ears and a molded facial area (eyes and muzzle) indicated in relief. The torso has a naturalistic curvature with a slight rounded belly; the front legs are held close to the body while the hind legs support the figure. The surface is dark green with mottled corrosion/patina consistent with aged copper-alloy metal. No visible suspension ring or enclosing container is apparent from this view, and the cat is presented as a standalone figurine. No clearly readable hieroglyphic, Greek, Coptic, or Arabic text is visible on the visible surfaces.

decorative Ptolemaic Period (per catalogue) good
Materials leaded bronze (green patina/corrosion visible)

Cross-references (4)

  • Wikidata-Q Q29385765 tier-1
  • Collection-QID Q160236 tier-2 (wikidata-mediated)
  • Inventory-Number 56.16.1 tier-2 (wikidata-mediated)
  • MET-Object 544118 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.