id: 154030 accession number: 1988.154 share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1988.154 updated: 2023-03-14 12:01:34.141000 Baboon on a Limestone Base, 380–30 BC. Egypt, Dynasty 30 to Ptolemaic Dynasty. Pale turquoise faience; overall: 10 x 4.5 x 7.5 cm (3 15/16 x 1 3/4 x 2 15/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Mrs. Noah L. Butkin 1988.154 title: Baboon on a Limestone Base title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: 380–30 BC creation date earliest: -380 creation date latest: -30 current location: 107 Egyptian creditline: Gift of Mrs. Noah L. Butkin copyright: --- culture: Egypt, Dynasty 30 to Ptolemaic Dynasty technique: pale turquoise faience department: Egyptian and Ancient Near Eastern Art collection: Egypt - Late Period type: Sculpture find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS --- measurements: Overall: 10 x 4.5 x 7.5 cm (3 15/16 x 1 3/4 x 2 15/16 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: inscription: translation: remark: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: The Year in Review for 1988 opening date: 1989-03-01T05:00:00 The Year in Review for 1988. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 1-May 14, 1989). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS --- PROVENANCE Collection of Mrs. Noah L. Butkin [Muriel Spiro] (1915-2008), Cleveland, OH date: 1971-1988 footnotes: citations: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH date: 1988- footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: The statuette is made from Egyptian faience and is glazed with a pale, semigloss turquoise. digital description: wall description: This finely carved Papio hamadrayas baboon squats low on a base, hands on knees in a traditional pose, copied from nature. Mane and mantle are incised with a scalloped pattern to imitate tufts of fur, and the sides of the face are stippled or dotted. The separate limestone base is ancient; judging by the inscription it does not belong with the statuette, which has been glued onto it in modern times. It reads, "Words spoken by Harpocrates, given life and health, lord of heaven, (on behalf of) Padiuser, the son of Usernakht and [mother's name uncertain]."
The baboon is the sacred animal of Thoth, god of the moon and of writing, and guide of the deceased in the underworld. Thoth's cult reached immense popularity in the Late and Ptolemaic periods (the Greeks identified him with Hermes). Statuettes of Thoth as a baboon are common, although not nearly as numerous as presentations of Thoth's other animal manifestation, the sacred Ibis. --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS Kozloff, Arielle P. Animals in Ancient Art from the Leo Mildenberg Collection. 1981. page number: p. 67, no. 55 url: “The Year in Review for 1988.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 76, no. 2 (1989). page number: no. 5 url: https://www.jstor.org/stable/25160061 Berman, Lawrence M., and Kenneth J. Bohač. Catalogue of Egyptian Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1999 page number: Reproduced: p. 440; Mentioned: p. 440-1 url: Fortenberry, Diane, ed. The Art Museum. London; New York: Phaidon Press, 2017. page number: Reproduced: P. 20, no. 2 url: --- IMAGES web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1988.154/1988.154_web.jpg print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1988.154/1988.154_print.jpg full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1988.154/1988.154_full.tif