This leaping hunting dog can be made to open and close its mouth using the lever beneath the chest. Originally secured by means of a thong tied through the hole in the back of its neck and two in the throat, the lever was later attached with a metal dowel in the right shoulder. When the mouth is opened, two teeth and a red tongue are visible.
This artwork is meant to be viewed from right to left. Scroll left to view more.
left profile
3/4 left
detail 2
Detail: head and front paws, mouth open.
Artwork Details
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Title:Mechanical Dog
Period:New Kingdom
Dynasty:Dynasty 18
Reign:reign of Amenhotep III
Date:ca. 1390–1352 B.C.
Geography:From Egypt
Medium:Ivory (elephant)
Dimensions:L. 18.2 × H. 6.1 × W. 3.6 cm (7 3/16 × 2 3/8 × 1 7/16 in.)
Credit Line:Rogers Fund, 1940
Object Number:40.2.1
Ex. collection Howard Carter. Purchased by the Museum from Carter's estate, London, 1940.
Phillips, Dorothy W. 1942. Ancient Egyptian Animals, Picture Books (Metropolitan Museum of Art), New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, pl. 18.
Scott, Nora E. 1944. Home Life of the Ancient Egyptians: A Picture Book. New York: Plantin Press, fig. 30.
Posener, Georges 1959. Dictionnaire de la civilisation égyptienne. Paris: F. Hazan, p. 54.
Hayes, William C. 1959. Scepter of Egypt II: A Background for the Study of the Egyptian Antiquities in the Metropolitan Museum of Art: The Hyksos Period and the New Kingdom (1675-1080 B.C.). Cambridge, Mass.: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, p. 314.
Scott, Nora E. 1973. The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, new ser., vol. 31, no. 3 (Spring), New York, p. 164, fig. 40.
Kozloff, Arielle P., Betsy Bryan, and Lawrence Michael Berman 1992. Egypt's Dazzling Sun: Amenhotep III and his World. Cleveland: Indiana University Press, no. 114, p. 427 (A. Kozloff).
Arnold, Dorothea 1995. The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, new ser., vol. 52, no. 4 (Spring), New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, p. 57, no. 75.
Roehrig, Catharine H. 2008. "Mechanical Dog." In Beyond Babylon: art, trade, and diplomacy in the second millennium B.C., edited by Joan Aruz, Kim Benzel, and Jean M. Evans. New York; New Haven and London: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, pp. 417–18, no. 271.
Arnold, Dorothea 2010. "Jagdhund des Pharao." In Falken, Katzen, Krokodile: Tiere im Alten Ägypten: Aus den Sammlungen des Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, und des Ägyptischen Museums Kairo, edited by Dorothea Arnold. Zurich: Museum Rietberg, p. 92, no. 100.
2019. Toutankhamon: à la découverte du pharaon oublié. Exposition organisée à l'espace Europa expo à la gare TGV des Guillemins, Liège, 14 décembre 2019 - 31 mai 2020. p. 176.
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The Met's collection of ancient Egyptian art consists of approximately 26,000 objects of artistic, historical, and cultural importance, dating from the Paleolithic to the Roman period.
