This finely cast hollow bronze cat is depicted wide-eyed and alert, seated on it haunches with a snaking tail that mischievously curls to its forepaws. Her muzzle has been neatly incised with radiating whiskers and her ears, which exhibit horizontal striations, are pricked as if listening. Slender in form and with high shoulders, she cuts a clean form displaying the sculptures ability to capture both naturalness and energy, in a particularly complicated shape to cast. She wears a lion-headed aegis on her chest, which hangs from a cowrie shell necklace. In ancient Egyptian tradition, an aegis was a type of gorget (a suspended neck shield) that usually bore a lion-face and was associated with Bastet, the feline goddess of warfare. A famous bronze-cast cat also from the Egyptian Late Dynasty, known as the Gayer-Anderson Cat, is on permanent display in the British Museum and also dates from the 4th – 7th centuries B.C (Egyptian Late Dynasty). Highly similar to ours although smaller size, the Gayer-Anderson cat is thought to be a zoomorphic representation of the goddess Bastat, suggesting our example may have offered a similar religious association . Both examples have bronze khepri-scarabs on their foreheads which have been carved in high relief. Khepri was the ancient Egyptian god of rebirth and the sunrise, and took the form of a beetle-headed man. The Gayer-Anderson cat is smaller in size than this example. This sculpture was cast using the lost-wax technique, whereby a wax model is covered in clay then fired in a kiln until the max welts, leaving a hollow mould in to which molten bronze is poured. X-ray analysis of the British Museum’s cat showed the remains of internal pins that originally held the wax core together, whilst also revealing substantial repairs undertaken in the 1930’s – highlighting the superb and rare condition of this example . Displaying a wonderful green patina across the bronze (suggesting a high copper to tin ratio in the molten alloy), which highlights the fine detail of the carving, this feline is an excellent example of a well-known type of statue that prevailed during the Egyptian Late Dynasty. As well as having important religious associations, the cat in ancient Egyptian myth was regarded as a symbol of sexuality and fecundity, because of its propensity to reproduce. Its representation is frequent throughout the history of Egyptian art, and during the Late Dynasty, which is now regarded by scholars as the last great flowering of a native Egyptian culture. The period saw alternating rule between Egyptians, Libyans and Persians, although its strong visual culture and use of animal iconography remained until the dynasty’s collapse under invasion by Alexander the Great. A notably similar bronze cast cat, which can be found in the Louvre in Paris, gives us an idea of the use of such statues. Containing a dedicatory hieroglyphic inscription on a cartouche, it tells us a certain Mersopdu, son of Hor, made the offering in the form of Bastet to obtain the protection of the goddess by placing the statue in the temple of Djedbastetioufankh, a priest-dancer for the feline goddess. Of particularly similar style and size to ours, and wearing a similar aegis around its neck, the Louvre example offers an insight in to the important ritualistic role our example would have played. A wonderfully evocative statue, especially when examined alongside the British Museum and Louvre parallels, this fine bronze cat highlights the Egyptian mastery of metallurgy as well as the rich vocabulary of animal motifs in ancient Egyptian art.

Published

Anonymous sale; Christie’s, London, 28 November 1979, lot 231.

Provenance

Anonymous sale; Christie’s, London, 28 November 1979, lot 231.
Private collection, Dublin.

Sold