Ars 101 Egyptian Art in Metropolitan Museum of Art

Kate Joslin

ARS 101

Professor Lewis

19 January 2109

Written Assignment #1

When looking at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s website and looking at Egyptian Art, many art pieces caught my eye.

The first piece that caught my attention was a small green ring, called Ring with Cat and Kittens (ca. 1295-664 B.C.). It is very unique, it is a seafoam or mint green color. I found it to be unique compared to a lot of other pieces because instead of just being a pot, or a slab that had images carved on it, the cat and kittens were like small sculptures sitting on top of the ring. According to the description accompanying the ring, the different elements of the ring symbolize the “’Faraway Goddess’ a story in which a feline plays a prominent role as a deity that must be coaxed back to the Nile Valley after she flees into the Nubian desert.”  

Another piece that really intrigued me is a piece labelled as Handle Depicting a Lion Subduing a Nubian (ca. 1279-1213 B.C.) I really enjoy the simplicity, yet attention to little engraving details on the lion, as well as the Nubian. I also really liked how they used gold detailing on the eyes and teeth. According to the description, the lion head symbolizes the pharaoh of Egypt, and the lion is subduing a Nubian. Nubians were also considered the traditional enemies on  Egypt, which explains to us why the lion would be subduing the Nubian.

Later on, while going through more pages of art, I finally stumbled upon another work that caught my attention. It is called Marsh-Bowl (ca. 1492-1473 B.C.) This beautiful, blue, shallow bowl has a lotus also in its decoration. In the description of the artwork, it is stated that the blue lotus is a powerful symbol of regeneration. The stems of each lotus are growing from a rectangular pool that is seen in the center of the bowl.

Overall, many other works within the category of Egyptian Art interested me, and some puzzled me to the point that I was unsure of what it was so I was very interested to learn more to understand the artwork. I also really liked being able to see variety in the details, and the scale of different artworks throughout the Egyptian Art section of the Metropolitan Art Museum.