Returned to lender The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
Stand in the Shape of a Woman
Middle Kingdom
Not on view
This object is not part of The Met collection. It was in the Museum for a special exhibition and has been returned to the lender.
The Middle Kingdom town site of el-Lahun yielded a series of limestone, human-shaped stands supporting round vessels with shallow depressions; they may have served as lamps or offering stands in houses. This female form is among the most powerful, despite its fragmentary state. The short upper legs perhaps convey dwarf proportions, recalling numerous faience figurines of dwarfs, thought to play special protective roles at the thresholds of birth and death.
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