Egypt, Late Period to Ptolemaic ca. 776-31 B.C..Wood, stucco and black, white, blue and red paint. H. 121 cmThe painting depicts the Egyptian goddess Maat. As a woman with an ostrich feather on her head, she symbolises the moral world order. The face and lower body are rendered in profile, the upper body is frontal. The word “maat” stands for a principle that encompasses various aspects of cosmic order such as righteousness and truth. Some loss of paint at the edges. Minor retouching.Formerly Coll. of the French novelist Julien Viaud, alias Pierre Loti (1850-1923).