Returned to lender The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
Statuette of a Female Dwarf and Baby
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.
Carved from a single block of wood, this statuette captures a young woman of dwarf proportions tightly holding an infant against her hip. Her buttocks and legs are sculpted in voluminous curves, but the relatively flat chest perhaps indicates a girl rather than an adult. The figure was originally set into a separate base. Although its precise meaning is uncertain, it likely carried some protective significance for mothers and children.
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