Vatican Museums

Statue of the god Bes

Statue of the god Bes

Bes, the Egyptian protector of infants and expectant mothers, is distinguished by his unusual iconography. The body is stocky, the legs are bowed and the face is similar to a mask, with a snarling mouth, protruding tongue, and the large swollen eyes marked by deep lines. In this specimen from the Roman Age there are...

Anthropomorphic statue of the god Apis

Anthropomorphic statue of the god Apis

The statue depicts the god Apis with a human body and a bull’s head. The arms, the lower part of the body and the legs are missing; however, the god was probably depicted in a standing position holding his right arm in front of him, holding the scepter or was, symbol of power, conserved in...

Statue of Queen Tuya

Statue of Queen Tuya

This statue, sculpted during 18th Dynasty with the features of Queen Tiye, wife of Amenhotep III, was usurped and reused during the 19th Dynasty by Ramesses II, who dedicated it to his mother Tuya. This queen, who had an important political and court role, received after her death a funerary cult associated with that of...

Osiris Canopus Jar

Osiris Canopic Jar

A Canopic jar with the head of Osiris emerging from it. In the cult of Isis and Serapis, during the Ptolemaic and Roman periods. Osiris Canopus jars (also known Osiris-Hydreios) were carried by priests during processions. As they are solid, each symbolically carried water from the Nile, fertility that originated from the god Osiris, one...