Figurine of Ptah in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, January 2026

On loan to The Met

Title: Figurine of Ptah

Period: New Kingdom

Date: ca. 1336–1070 BCE

Medium: Faience

Dimensions: 6.4 × 3.9 × 4.2 cm (2 1/2 × 1 9/16 × 1 5/8 in.)

Credit Line: University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia;
The Eckley B. Coxe Jr. Expedition to Mit-Rahineh (Memphis), Egypt, 1915–1920 (29-84-482)

Object No.: DE.081


Ptah’s iconography is remarkably consistent across different object types and materials. While the god often stands in a shrine—frequently on a trapezoidal pedestal in the shape of a hieroglyph for maat—he can also be enthroned. His standard attributes are sometimes embellished, such as with the addition of feathers and wings to his shroud (a rare feature of the New Kingdom) or green skin (a feature of fertility deities).

See also: Relief of Ptah
Penn Museum—University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia, The Eckley B. Coxe Jr. Expedition to Mit-Rahineh (Memphis), Egypt, Clarence Stanley Fisher, 1915 (E13579)

Cult image of Ptah
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Anne and John V. Hansen Egyptian Purchase Fund, 2007 (2007.24)


Text from: www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/divine-egypt/exhibition-objects