Representation of a Queen or Goddess

Although both queens and goddesses were often represented in the Ptolemaic Period with elaborate headdresses consisting of a vulture surmounted by cow's horns and a sun disk, the smaller of these two females is clearly labeled as the goddess Isis by a hieroglyph above the orb of the sun. The identity of the woman on the larger fragment is uncertain. Both works feature the style characteristic of Ptolemaic art: fleshy cheeks and especially the bullet-shaped breast and luxuriant belly and thighs on the smaller piece. Although the latter work may have been a sculptor's trial piece, as suggested by the grid pattern on the rectangle at the upper right, the hole at the top indicates that it may have been reused as a temple offering.