Description:
A turquoise blue faience plaque showing the god Bes in profile. He is depicted in a way typical for the god, as a bandy legged, deformed dwarf with a grotesque and gruesome human face and wide eyes, round, lionine ears and animal hair or manes.
Bes is here shown playing the tambourine, a percussion instrument that the god used to ward off evil. His left hand is holding the instrument and with his right hand he is beating a rhythm.
Background information:
The god who is usually called Bes was in fact the personification of a whole group of very similar gods, whose characteristics are too much muddled for us to be able to differentiate them and who, therefore, are all commonly referred to as Bes.
Bes is a god with a remarkable appearance; his face, surrounded by a lion’s mane and with his tongue often sticking out of his mouth, is quite gruesome, and so is his body which is that of a dwarf, with short crooked legs and usually a tail; normally he is wearing an animal skin and a headdress with feathers. Often he is holding one or more knives or snakes.
His main task is to give protection, especially in circumstances where dangers are lurking, such as during childbirth; so-called magical knives, used in the Middle Kingdom during rituals surrounding childbirth, depict Bes and other protective creatures; similarly, in later periods, Bes is present in the so-called birth house (mammisi) in temples.
But not only during special moments (rites de passage) all kinds of dangers were lurking, they were also feared in daily life. During the night people were sleeping, unaware of what was happening around them; to protect them, representations of Bes (or similar gods, like Taweret) were put on furniture like beds and headrests. Depictions of the god were also worn as amulets as a general protection against evil.
The god was associated with several musical instruments. In the Third Intermediate Period he was often depicted playing a stringed instrument, either a lyre or a long-necked lute, but already since the New Kingdom he is shown playing the (double) flute, or a drum or tambourine (Andrews, p. 40 and fig. 37c; Romano, p. 70-71; 109-110, and for the catalogue numbers see index on p. 117; for comparable images in bronze see Roeder, p. 99-100, § 141).
Literature:
Carol Andrews, Amulets of Ancient Egypt (London, British Museum Press, 1994); Günther Roeder, Ägyptische Bronzefiguren (Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Mitteilungen aus der ägyptischen Sammlung, Band VI) (Berlin, 1956); James F. Romano, The Bes-Image in Pharaonic Egypt (New York, 1989).
Dating:
Rather difficult to date exactly, most likely New Kingdom (1550-1070 B.C.), possibly somewhat later.
Size:
Height 3.1 cm.
Provenance:
With Sumer Gallery, New York, 1985; thence US private collection; thence Christie's New York, Ancient Jewelry, 9 December 2004, lot 74; thence Dutch private collection.
Condition:
Intact with some wear and encrustation.
Price:
€ 800
Stock number:
E1299