DISCUSS

Isis with the Infant Horus
Greco-Roman Period (332 BCE-32 CE)

This sculpture shows a mother (the goddess Isis) with her child (the god Horus). Scroll over the image of Isis to magnify.

What details can you see with the magnifier?
How would you describe the woman's facial features?
How is she posed?
How is she holding the infant Horus?
What types of ornament adorn her headdress?
What do you notice about the baby?
What kinds of shapes and textures do you see?
Are any portions of the sculpture missing?

Compare Isis with the Infant Horus with another mother and child from WCMA’s collection (below).

What similarities do you see? What are the differences?

Anonymous (Italian)
Madonna and Child with Saints
Late 15th century
tempera and gold leaf on panel
27 3/16 x 16 7/8 in. (69.1 x 42.8 cm)
Gift of Joseph O. Eaton, Class of 1895
29.1.16

Now compare the bronze of Isis with Infant Horus with the Greek figurine Standing Draped Woman (below), which may depict the goddess Aphrodite and was likely a grave offering.

Unknown (Boeotian, Greek)
Standing Draped Woman, Possibly Aphrodite
350-330 BCE
8 9/16 x 2 7/8 x 1 3/4 in. (21.7 x 7.3 x 4.4 cm)
terracotta
Gift of the son and daughters of Charles Bolles Bolles-Rogers, Class of 1907: Frederick Van D. Rogers, Mary Rogers Savage, and Nancy Rogers Pierson
77.63.46

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