Sale: CNG 81, Lot: 1424. Estimate $500.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 20 May 2009.  Sold For $661. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Bronze figure of Isis nursing Harpocrates (the child Horus). Egyptian, Third Intermediate Period to Late Period, 1070-332 BC. Crowned figure of Isis seated, holding right hand to breast, supporting Harpocrates on her lap with her left hand. Harpocrates is nude, wearing a crown and the side-lock of youth. Tang at the base. Height: 12.0 cm. Good condition, brown patina with some green encrustation. Small area by right foot damaged and repaired.

Following Alexander’s conquest of Egypt, the cult of Isis spread across the Mediterranean, with its popularity reaching its height in the Roman period, when the “goddess of a thousand names” became one of the Mediterranean’s principle deities. It is generally assumed that the iconography of Isis nursing Harpocrates influenced Christian representations of the Madonna and Child, particularly the Virgo lactans type popular in Medieval Europe.