 And welcome to your barns daily takeout. I'm Karl Walsh and I'm postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Research, Interpretation and Education here at the barns. And today I wanted to have a look at a small Egyptian statuette which is in a cabinet in the east wall of room 16. And this little cabinet is full of lots of statuettes and parts of statues from the ancient world. We have things from Egypt and from Greece and from Rome and including this lovely Venus head which my colleague Kaylin Jewel recently talked about in one of her takeouts. And the figurine that we're going to have a look at today is this one that sat up on the top shelf. And you can see it's quite small. So if we zoom in. This is a lovely little depiction of the goddess Isis who is nursing her infant son horse on her lap. And you can see that she has this nice contouring dress that she's wearing. She's got a really nice intricate beaded collar around her neck. And then her hair falls down onto her chest and also down onto her back as well. And then she has this elaborate head dress that she's wearing with a little rearing cobra on her brow which symbolizes her divinity. And then she has this curious kind of stepped shape on top of her head. And if we just swap the view over you can have a look at this a little bit more closely. And this little motif is actually a hieroglyphic sign. And it's the sign for Isis's name, Iset in Egyptian. And if you have a look at it, it actually looks very similar to the throne that she sat on. And that's because it is indeed a throne hieroglyphic. So this is a nice little kind of play on words and imagery in the statuette that is kind of referencing the throne that she sat on as well. So this is kind of turned into a nice little headdress on top of her head. And then we have a depiction of her infant son Horus on her lap. And you can see that Horus has all these chubby features of a child and he has a shaved head except for this trailing and curling lock which falls down on the side of his face. And this is a pretty standard depiction of a child in ancient Egyptian art. They usually have a shaved head and then they have this kind of youthful lock which denotes them as a child. And when they kind of reach into adulthood, this is usually shaved off. But Horus also has a nice little rearing cobra on his brow. So this is also showing that he's a god rather than just any old child. And this little scene altogether kind of is very much communicating the divinity of these individuals. And we'll come back and have a look at that a little bit in terms of the story that is behind this too. But the really bright green color of this statuette relates to the material that it's made of which is called faience. And this is a kind of ceramic like material and it's largely made from crushed silica which is made into a paste with an added colored glaze and then it's fired. And because it's made into this paste, you can pour it into a mold usually made out of stone or ceramic in Egypt. And the benefit of using a mold is that you can mass produce these quite finely made objects without the laborious process of carving each individual statuette. And if we zoom in a little bit on this statue, you can actually kind of see well actually can kind of see already that the details on this statuette are actually quite fine. So I think it's very likely that this was probably made in a mold. And we have a number of other examples of these types of statuette statuettes which date to the Ptolemaic period. So this is about 300 to about 30 BC. And these seem to be a really common mass produced object in Egypt at this time. And if you go to a lot of different museum collections, you often find statuettes like this. There's a really nice example in the Metropolitan Museum in New York if you want to have a look. And to get this really bright color, the Egyptians added a color glaze. And this can be applied through either just painting it onto the surface or you can immerse it in a powdered form of the glaze or you can actually just mix the glaze into the faience paste. And then when you fire it, it kind of bubbles to the surface and creates a kind of even glaze across the object. And I think that's probably likely the technique that was used for making this statuette because it seems to have a pretty even coverage of glaze over it. And it doesn't have any noticeable brush marks on it that would suggest it was painted on. And this really lovely bright green color that you're seeing is through adding copper oxide to the glaze, which produces this really nice green blue kind of turquoise color. And this is one of the Egyptians favorite colors to use for this type of object, because green has this really kind of regenerative symbolism to it. And it also probably is likely providing a cheaper alternative to green stones like turquoise or kind of blue stones like lapis lazuli, which are expensive and kind of hard to get hold of. So it provides a cheap alternative to that as well. This would have been then fired in a kiln, and causing it to harden and the color to brighten as well, and the production of a smooth, glassy finish to the object. And the Egyptians called faience chenet, which means literally gleaming or dazzling. And I think looking at this statuette, you can see that that, you know, bright hue and the actual kind of shining surface and gleaming surface is quite apparent. It reflects not light in a really nice way. And so it's certainly deserving of this term of gleaming and sparkling. And the image of Horus and Isis together is also part of a larger story that was really popular in ancient Egypt, which is the myth of Osiris. And it tells of the Primeval King Osiris and his wife, Isis, and how Osiris was murdered by his brother, Set, who is the god of violence and chaos. And Set chops up Osiris's body and hides all the pieces around Egypt, so they can't be found. And then this also denies Osiris a place in the afterlife. But Isis kind of secrets herself away into the marshes of the Nile Delta. And there she secretly gathers and finds all the pieces of Osiris. And with the help of other gods and her magic, she's able to kind of temporarily revive and reunite the pieces of Osiris. So and before he's able to travel to the land of the dead, where he will become the god of the dead there, she's able to conceive her son Horus with him. And Isis spends a lot of time giving birth, raising, nurturing and caring for Horus in the marshes in secret, and protecting him from all the things like snake bites and scorpion stings and illness, while trying to keep him, you know, safe and secret from Set. Until Horus is able to reach maturity and challenge his uncle for the throne, which he does successfully and kind of restores order and the natural balance through inheriting his father's throne. And I think this myth really encapsulates the Egyptians belief in the natural order and the cycle of life and the ability for people to travel into the afterlife as well, which is why it's such a kind of comforting story to the Egyptians. And the image here of Isis and Horus together would have been really symbolic of the renewal of life through a mother's love. And I think it's likely this kind of statue up was made as a voting vote of offering for Isis. So it would be purchased by someone and then taken to the temple of Isis and given as a gift as an offering to the goddess in hopes for some kind of aid or help. Perhaps this could be something like a mother looking looking for protection during childbirth or in helping to treat an illness or a scorpion sting or a snake bite in some way. And so it's really a kind of an image of hope and renewal for the Egyptians. And I think that's something that really resonates for us today as well. And now that everyone's at home as well with the family, it's really about the kind of the power of family as well. And I really wanted to share the story with you because I think this is a great time to be able to explore kind of stories from other cultures and societies that allow us to interpret art in new ways as well. So next time you're in the barns, take some time to have a look at this statuette and what it potentially meant to the people who made it as well. So that's today. That's it for today's barns takeout. If you haven't already, please do subscribe to the channel and leave a comment. We really enjoy reading and responding to these. Please stay safe and take care. I'm Tom Collins new Bauer family executive director of the Barnes Foundation. I hope you enjoyed barns takeout. Subscribe and make sure your post notifications are on to get daily servings of art. Thanks for watching and for your support of the Barnes Foundation.