Statuette of the Goddess Bastet as a Seated Cat
Unknown · Late Period, 664-332 BC (attributed on style)
A cat sits bolt upright on its haunches, tail curled around its front paws, ears alert and inlaid eyes fixed on a point beyond the visitor. The statuette is only seventeen centimetres high, cast in copper alloy and finished with a fine chasing tool; the eyes are set with a pale stone, perhaps rock crystal, that catches the light. The surface has the dark patina of ancient bronze. Look at the tension in the body, upright and composed, which makes the small figure seem larger than it is.
The seated cat is the animal of Bastet, goddess of the home, of joy and of the protective power of the sun, whose cult centre lay at Bubastis in the Delta. In the Late Period, from the seventh century before Christ, thousands of such bronzes were dedicated in her temples, and mummified cats were buried in vast cemeteries beside them. The statuette was given to the Louvre in eighteen sixty-two, in the early years of the Egyptian department, and its style places it in that period.
Did You Know? Bronze cats were sold to pilgrims at the temple of Bastet at Bubastis, who dedicated them to the goddess in the hope of her protection at home.
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