27 cm with the stand.
Provenance
- Private collection, Paris, France.
Sculpture in an almost round shape of the goddess Isis-Hathor attached to a stela carved from a single block of diorite. It presents a very high relief becoming almost a free-standing sculpture. Given the relationship between both deities, the characteristics with which the figure is represented and the lack of inscriptions, it could be Isis as well as Hathor. The goddess, whose bust can be seen, has her right arm stretched downwards, and her left arm crossed under her chest. Her body is shown without any marked dress, but since in numerous sculptures of gods their clothing is not drawn, it is insinuated, but it is understood that she would be covered with a long dress tight to her body. Her face shows good carving on both of her eyes, but her nose and mouth have been eroded. The attributes that allow the identification of the goddesses are; her characteristic hairstyle, a voluptuous tripartite wig, which descends in front of the shoulders and down the back, in which lines have been marked by means of incisions to differentiate the strands. Above this wig stands a crown composed of two baca horns with a sun disk in the middle, insignia of both deities, with an upright cobra or the head of a vulture in the lower central part, now lost. Quite possibly the sculpture - stela was finished up to the feet of the goddess, surely upright and possibly with inscriptions identifying her and the owner or who acquired it to deposit it in a temple or chapel and receive favors from her.
In this figure, the importance lies in the material used, a rock more typical of the elaboration or carving of crockery elements, such as plates and bowls, in stone, especially in the Predynastic period and during the first dynasties. Since the Old Kingdom, limestone, abundant and soft, was the most used for carving reliefs, stelae and sculptures. Some sculptures, especially of small dimensions, as far as deities or private ones are concerned, were carved in other types of rocks of superior hardness, becoming a luxury product. Without taking into account, obviously, large royal effigies, whether they were images of pharaohs or gods, provided by monarchs as a sign of devotion in temples or as public sculpture. Another characteristic that deserves to be mentioned is both the dimensions and the thickness of the figure, providing a certain appearance to the work.
Both Isis and Hathor were two of the most important goddesses in the Egyptian pantheon. In many of the representations they embody similar attributes and powers, which led to a syncretism between them, depending on the performance with which they identified.
The goddess Isis, according to the stories, was the daughter of Gueb and Nut, sister of Osiris, whose wife she was also considered. This deity was named as; «Great magician», «Great mother goddess», «Queen of the gods», «Fertilising force of nature», «Goddess of motherhood and birth».
Osiris reigned in ancient Egypt with peace, harmony and wisdom. The Nile fertilized the land and the crops were bountiful. One day, Osiris went on a journey to meet other civilizations and left the kingdom under the command of his wife Isis. Seth, his envious brother, felt humiliated as he believed that he should rule and not Isis. On his return Osiris was assassinated by her brother and the goddess Isis, aided by other divinities such as Nephthys and Anubis, searched for and found her husband's chopped-up body, put it back together and, through special rites, brought him back to life. After that she physically joined her god becoming pregnant by him. Osiris's posthumous son would be Horus as a child, Harpocrates, who would later avenge his father by fighting Seth.
Being one of the main deities, Isis was venerated throughout the history of Egypt, and in the last era her largest temple was erected on the island of Philae. The Greco-Roman world adopted her characteristics associating them with Aphrodite and Venus. Another of the main aspects of her: the condition of "mother of the god" would also be relevant in her cults, influencing Catholicism and Orthodox Christianity.
Hathor is the goddess of the sky, love, joy, music and dance. She protective goddess of motherhood and children. This goddess is mainly represented as a woman with the ears or head of a cow, lyriform horns and a sun disk. She sometimes identifies with other goddesses such as Sekhmet and Tefnut in the guise of a lioness, and with Bastet and Isis, with whom she is almost confused, with whom she shares functions and legends. She was one of the many goddesses who took on the role of the Eye of Ra, Ra's female counterpart, and in this form, she had a vengeful nature that protected him from his enemies. The beneficent side of her represented music, dance, joy, love, sexuality, and maternal care, and she acted as the consort of various male deities and the mother of her children. These two aspects of the goddess exemplified the Egyptian conception of femininity. She crossed the border between worlds, helping deceased souls in their transition to life after death.