230 - Sculpture of Harpocrates. Egypt, Late Period, 664–323 B.C.

Sculpture of Harpocrates. Egypt, Late Period, 664–323 B.C. Bronze. Measurements: 14.2 x 4 cm; 16.2 x 4 cm (base). Provenance: Family legacy of Ramon Martí Alsina and Ricard Martí Aguiló. Archaeological collection formed from the 1950s by successive generations of the family, through acquisitions in European galleries and auction houses. An Egyptian bronze statuette depicting the god Harpocrates, nude, with a finger to his mouth, and seated. Originally, it would likely have been placed on a throne, whether made of bronze, wood, or other materials. He wears a nemes (a striped funerary headdress that was often paired with the uraeus diadem), which is topped by a distinctive headdress also found in other notable works such as the Isiac Tablet or Bembina, now in Turin. As the child form of Horus, Harpocrates was worshiped beginning in the New Kingdom and symbolizes the faint sun of dawn or the winter sun, naked and unprotected. Just as this sun transforms into a powerful celestial body, the frail child will become the adult Horus—armed and warlike—who will avenge the death of his father, Osiris.