Returned to lender The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
Figurine of a Mourner
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.
Before the New Kingdom, ancient Egyptian artists were reserved about depicting emotions. One major exception is the representation of mourners, who bow their heads and raise their arms in lamentation. The depiction of emotion in such contexts was deemed permissible because expressive mourning was customary during Egyptian funerals. This poignant figure might have been placed beside a coffin, and with a second figure they would have represented the goddesses Isis and Nephthys mourning the dead funerary deity Osiris.
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