The Cleveland Museum of Art
Collection Online as of March 13, 2025
Head of a Woman Holding a Sistrum
150 BCE–50 CE
Overall: 17.7 x 20 x 11.2 cm (6 15/16 x 7 7/8 x 4 7/16 in.)
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1929.980
Location: 102C Greek
Did You Know?
A sistrum (rattle) can have either three or four branches through the body of the instrument.Description
This head of a woman was likely originally part of a stele or grave marker. The woman sits in partial profile holding a sistrum close to her head, possibly making music. A sistrum is a type of rattle that originated in ancient Egypt and spread to the Greek world. (View a sistrum in the collection here: 1920.1990.) The sistrum likely signaled to ancient viewers that the woman on the grave marker was a worshiper of the Egyptian goddess Isis, whose cult spread throughout the Mediterranean after Alexander the Great took over Egypt.- ?-1928 Edward P. Warren1928-1929 C. J. Murray West, by bequest from Warren1929- Cleveland Museum of Art
- Saura-Zeigelmeyet, Arnaud. "Le sistre isiaque dans l'iconographie funéraire impériale: entre symbole visuel sonore et symbole visuel identitaire" in Sébastien Biay, Frédéric Billiet, and Isabelle Marchesin (eds.), Les figurations visuelles de la parole, du son musical et du bruit, de l'Antiquité à la Renaissance, Paris, IReMus 2021, p.83-93. Reproduced p. 87
- Exhibition of Classical Art, Karamu House, Cleveland, OH, (Aug. 31-Dec. 16, 1960).
- {{cite web|title=Head of a Woman Holding a Sistrum|url=https://www.clevelandart.org/print/art/1929.980|author=|year=150 BCE–50 CE|access-date=13 March 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}
Source URL:
https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1929.980