猫 - 美国大都会艺术博物馆展品查阅

品名（中）	猫
品名（英）	Cat
入馆年号	1945年，45.4.6
策展部门	埃及艺术（Egyptian Art）
创作者
创作年份	公元前 664 - 公元前 30
创作地区	来自于: 埃及（From: Egypt）
分类
尺寸	高 7.2 厘米 (2 13/16 英寸); 宽 2.8 厘米 (1 1/8 英寸); 长 4.3 厘米 (1 11/16 英寸)
介绍（中）	巴斯特是下埃及的一位强大的女神，她具有保护性，能够带来巨大的繁荣。在动物形态中，她被描绘成一只猫，猫对她来说是神圣的。这只猫以典型的姿势坐在menat形状的底座上，直立，尾巴沿着右侧缠绕。它泰然自若，警惕外部势力这个小小的数字之所以与众不同，是因为其制造过程中的细节和关注程度。它有许多与其他坐着的猫相同的特征：它戴着护身符，皮毛上有短而重复的标记，还有一条环状的尾巴。然而，在这个例子中，这些特征是用金色挑选出来的，这给它一个引人注目的外观。这篇文章也让我们深入了解了那些奉献这些物品的人的心态；这表明，即使是小雕像也被认为是重要的，值得精心制作和额外花费。奉献并不一定要很大才能有意义或令人印象深刻猫雕像是晚期和托勒密时期最常见的动物雕像之一。像这样的小雕像可能会被奉献给寺庙，或者存放在猫木乃伊旁边的地下墓穴中，比如Bubastis和Saqqara的大型地下墓穴。有时更大的中空的例子里面有一只猫木乃伊。
介绍（英）	Bastet was a powerful goddess of Lower Egypt, one who was protective and could bring about great prosperity. In zoomorphic form, she was represented as a cat and cats were considered sacred to her. This cat sits on a menat-shaped base in a typical pose, upright with its tail wrapped along its right side. It is poised and alert, on guard against external forces. This small figure is exceptional because of the level of detail and attention that went into its manufacture. It has many of the same features as other seated cats: it wears an amulet, its fur is indicated by short repeated markings, and it has a ringed tail. On this example, however, these features are picked out in gold, which gives it a striking appearance. This piece also gives us insight into the mentality of those who dedicated such objects; it shows that even small statuettes were considered important and worthy of elaboration and extra cost. Dedications did not always have to be large to be significant or impressive. Cat statuettes were among some of the most common zoomorphic dedications of the Late and Ptolemaic Periods. Small statuettes like this one would have been dedicated as offerings to temples or deposited in catacombs alongside cat mummies, as at the extensive catacombs at Bubastis and Saqqara. Sometimes larger hollow examples held a cat mummy inside.