Gateway to a shrine, preceded by two baboons

Unknown

332–30 B.C. · Faience · Egyptian Art

This delicate faience model depicts the essential elements of a shrine or entryway to a sacred space. Two baboons are placed at either side of a formal gateway, and, passing through the doorway, the inner room of a shrine is represented by two slender columns on a platform. The placement of the baboons at either side of the gateway strikingly recalls the possible original locations for the excavated baboon statue 1971.51 at the entry to the Baboon Catacombs at the Sacred Animal Necropolis in North Saqqara.

Artist

Unknown

Date

332–30 B.C.

Medium

Faience

Department

Egyptian Art

Credit line

Theodore M. Davis Collection, Bequest of Theodore M. Davis, 1915