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Statuette of a Serving Girl
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art. Free to download, adapt and use — no permission needed.
About this work
This statuette of a young serving girl carrying a jar belongs to a select group of hand-modeled figurines usually dated to Dynasties 18 and 19. According to the conventions of Egyptian art, the girl's nudity and the sidelock of hair indicate her young age. No more than a dozen of these statuettes are known. Their distinctive features--slit-like eyes, exaggerated hips, triangular delineation of the legs, and finger-depression of the navel--suggest that all were made in the same workshop. Although their exact function remains unknown, it has been suggested that they magically served the deceased as an object in the tomb.
Cleveland Museum of Art’s own descriptionCredit lineStatuette of a Serving Girl, c. 1323–1186 BCE. Egypt, New Kingdom (1540–1069 BCE), Dynasties 18–19. Terracotta, originally painted; overall: 38.4 x 9.2 cm (15 1/8 x 3 5/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, John L. Severance Fund, 1991.107
