Egyptian Art - Hathor Amulet, Goddess of Love

 HATHOR AMULET - SISTRUM STYLE

This design features the goddess Hathor / Het-Her, in full frontal sistrum style. This style can be seen included in some temple columns, particularly at Dendara where the principal unfinished temple dedicated to Hathor is still located. At Thebes in the upper courts of Hatshepsuts' temple more fine examples of this unusual style can be found atop many columns. On a smaller scale the Sistrum, a type of temple rattle also featured this shape. Amulets and charms such as this were also sold in the ancient market place for potential buyers to receive the favour of love and fertility that Hathor could bring into your life.
The piece on offer here depicts Hathor wearing a spiral wig, framing a face with subtle cows ears. The cow was sacred to Hathor as the earliest Egyptians could see the mothering qualities of the cow with her calf and deified the animal. Hathor was thus a principal mother goddess whose characteristics were assimilated in time with Isis who could also be seen wearing the Hathor crown. This crown consisted of the sun disc of Ra her father  surrounded by cow horns.

I first started making these amulets in the early 1990's after attending a symposium of Egyptology at Maquarie university in Sydney Australia. I was able to meet the venerable Harry James from the British museum, a master of Egyptian antiquity he was touring to give a lecture on the subject. A few of us were taken with Harry to see the university collection which was impressive. A large funerary model boat, canopics and reliefs were wonderful to see, but a set of drawers with about 10 shallow trays held the most memorable moment. Each drawer was filled with amulets and small carvings of every description and I saw Hathor amulets like this one side by side. Harry picked one out for a cursory study and I was forever inspired to recreate what I saw.

This actual piece has a highly eroded surface with Egyptian blue colouring and is deliberately aged to ensure it looks very realistic. The details of this piece are barely there which is the point of interest for me. I do have another Hathor amulet for sale this week with a more intact appearance in terms of texture and painted details you may wish to compare. One looks 3000 years old while the other looks 2000 years old. 

 All of my works are hand painted which is an art in itself to replicate an ancient finish.

Dimensions - 5cm x 10.5cm  

This amulet does not come with a stand although one of the pictures looks like it is mounted on one. This picture does provide inspiration for making a stand  even though I have never thought it necessary before. If  anyone out there would like me to bother, please let me know as a stand design has entered my mind.

About the Artist  -

ameron's works are mostly sculptures both in the round or relief carving. His speciality is the reproduction of ancient Egyptian sculpture. His work was exhibited extensively in Brisbane with displays in the state museum, and in conjunction with a spectacular production of the opera Aida. His story and his work was shown on Australian television, and his hand made sculptures sold across Australia, and to overseas destinations such as New York, London, Iceland, India and Switzerland. Many of them are used as decorator items for interior design (Objects D'art) or as whole feature walls. The strength of his commercial work stems from the ancient realism that he gives his pieces. You can view some of his releifs and sculpture here.

ameron grew up on a farm an hour and a half south of Brisbane, Australia. The mountains of the Great Dividing Range were always in view and particularly close was a mountain known as the sleeping Assyrian - a colossal figure of a man gazing skyward as he lay on his back. He developed a very close affinity with the land studying the many rocks and fossils that he discovered on his expeditions.

ut it was when Kameron's father brought home a large book that was filled with many different ancient cultures that he fell in love with Egypt. As a child, Kameron tried to emulate the past by carving images into the stones and forming clay figurines. As a teenager he was Pharaoh, high priest and artisan whenever he visited his grandparents remote property. This was his imaginary empire and at this most special and sacred place he really learnt to carve. Small sandstone cliffs were transformed to become the home of larger than life sized Pharaonic heads, small pyramids were constructed for his royal pets while non royal pets were merely given a small sealed underground chamber. Artworks were created exclusively for burial and accompanied the many mummified fish and birds as well as un-mummified cats and dogs. It was an unconventional subconscious learning experience. He never thought he would take it further than the fields, but now it is a full time occupation which sees his work going all over the world, even making pieces of authentic "museum quality" reproductions for Warner Brothers film sets.

n the art of sculpture Kameron is self-taught. Over the years, he has created a range of realistic ancient sculptures with an attention to detail that makes the work look as though you have just unearthed it from an archaeological site … and that is the difference. Some of the world's leading archaeologists have viewed Kameron's work with interest comparing it favourably with the artists that lived in Egypt's ancient capital of Thebes. He has also had the privilege to restore some antiquities matching form and colours exactly to suit, such as a relief sculpture from the tomb of King Seti the first. It was actually a cast made by notorious adventurer Giovani Belzoni for an exhibition in London in the 19th century to show the world for the first time the distinctive style that is Egyptian art.

hen Kameron is not recreating the past it is the future that he delves into where fantasy worlds are born in his imagination and his dreams. They come to life in drawings, paintings, and sculpture with its own mythology and symbolism.

 

hope you enjoy the work and thank you for your interest.