Statuette of a Woman Playing Crotales

500-1000
Not on view
Returned to lender
This work of art was on loan to the museum and has since been returned to its lender.
During both the Byzantine and the Islamic periods, female images signified abundance, fertility, intellectual pursuits, deities, and cities. Women also appear as court entertainers such as dancers, musicians, and courtesans.
This female dancer holds crotales (handled castanets), a musical instrument often used by the maenads in the Dionysiac revels and still used in North African music.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Statuette of a Woman Playing Crotales
  • Date: 500-1000
  • Geography: Made in Eastern Mediterranean
  • Medium: Copper-based alloy
  • Dimensions: Hl: 8 11/16 in. (22 cm)
  • Classification: Metalwork
  • Credit Line: Département des Antiquités Égyptiennes, Musée du Louvre, Paris (E 25393)
  • Curatorial Department: Medieval Art and The Cloisters