Fertility figurine

This object exemplifies a group of ancient Egyptian statuettes, made of baked clay or less frequently limestone, each depicting a female figure lying on a bed or couch, stand-alone or often accompanied by a small-scale figure of a child, sometimes bordered by images of vessels or cosmetic tools. This type seems to have been introduced in the New Kingdom, during the late Eighteenth Dynasty and continued to be used until the Late Period. Their overall theme and defining formal characteristics relate them to Late Period and Hellenistic votive figurines, made of baked clay or more typically limestone, that depict a female figure standing, with or without a child, within a chapel or a shrine.
This particular statuette represents a woman reclining on a bed, accompanied by a diminutive figure of a child on her right, whose upraised left hand is gently touched by the fingers of her mother. Both figures are slender and naked, their members are disproportionately elongated. In all respects, this piece illustrates a rather crude craftsmanship typical of objects of mass production. It was made in a single-piece open mould, the ends and the sides are therefore rounded, and the back is slightly convex. The footboard of the bed is only hinted at by an upward curve. Following the moulding and firing, the statuette was coated first with a white and then a characteristic red wash, which has been preserved particularly over the bodies. The long curls of the mother’s wig and the pubic triangle still have traces of the original black painting.
Prevailing scholarly theories tend to label these objects as fertility figurines that may have been deposited as votive offerings in tombs, domestic shrines, and temples of the goddesses Hathor, Mut or Anuket to promote successful conception and grant divine blessings in the perilous time of early childhood. Owing to their high popularity, they were fashioned in large quantities in settlements and ceramic workshops belonging to temples and cult centres.