BULLETIN
OF THE METROPOLITAN
MUSEUM OF ART
COSMETIC SPOONS IN THE
FORM OF SWIMMING
GIRLS
is a slender, lithesome creature, swimming
with her head held high and holding in her
extended arms a shallow saucer which once
A small head of a girl in the Egyptian had a lid in the shape of either a duck or a
collection has for a long time been a puzzle.' fish, to judge from the tail projecting over
It is beautifully carved in a hard wood and the rim of the saucer. When published by
Prisse d'Avennes in I846,2
might be simply the head
of a statuette, except for
she was called an Ethithe fact that it is not
opian slave girl, princibroken at the neck and
pally because of her elabthat a tenon extending
orate coiffure, which was
down might indicate that
thought to resemble that
the body was made of a
of the southern tribes.
different material. This
But on close examination
would be a possible exher features do not justify
this identification, and a
planation were the head
cut from a precious macomparison with the Muterial, but would be most
seum's head makes possible a most interesting
unlikelywithwood. Moreover, the dressing of the
explanation of the coifhair is so unusual in charfure, which on first sight
acter that a typical statuseems so fantastic and
ette of the New Kingdom
..
strange. She has carefully
is out of the question.
piled her tightly crimped
. :~.:;'!~5.^
' *:?
There is, however, a
':-::
locks on top of her head
particularly charming
to keep them from getting
class of objects, made in
wet! It is important to
great profusion in the XVI I I
mention, too, that the exDynasty, which gives us a
tremely skillful woodworker
clue to the origin of our
who created this frivolous
head. These are the so-called
accessory for an Egyptian
"toilet," or "cosmetic,"
lady's dressing table did not
spoons, fashioned with a
attempt to carve the whole
total disregard of the trafrom one piece but fashioned
ditional formality of monuthe head separately and
mental art. A favorite condoweled it in place, cleverly
ceit was to make these
concealing the joint by inspoons in the form of a
cising on her shoulders a flat
FIGS. I AN
swimming girl, pushing becollar of beads which fits
D1 2. HEADS
fore her a receptacle in the
FROM COSMI E'TIC SPOONS
tightly around the neck.
shape of a fish, a duck, or
EGYPTIAN,
This cosmetic spoon is said
,ATE XVIII
some fanciful animal or
DYN
to have been found in a
ASTY
plant. There are many exMemphite tomb together
amples of such maidens, made of wood, with a whip handle bearing the cartouche
stone, or faience, in collections throughout of Akh-en-Aten.
the world, but the one which is especially
When we turn again to the Museum's
interesting to us is the wooden spoon in the head (fig. i) we find that it has been carved
New York Historical Society's collection, with the care of accurate portraiture. The
now on loan in the Brooklyn Museum. She arching eyebrows, the receding forehead,
the slightly slanted eyes, the pouting lips,
1Acc. no. 30.8.91. H. 4.5 cm. The Theodore M.
and the tilt of the chin-all are expressed
Davis Collection, Bequest of Theodore M. Davis;
1915. Now on exhibition in the Twelfth Egyptian
Room, with the other "swimming girls."
2 In Revue
Archeologique,2d year, part 2 (Paris,
1846), p. 740, pl. 40 bis.
173
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BULLETIN OF THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART
with the naturalism that marks most of the
art of the cAmarneh period. The hair, although less elaborately dressed to begin
with than that of the lady in Brooklyn, has
been gathered up and across and secured in
place with the two strands from the front
which would have framed her face. With
the tenon set in the shoulders of a girl in
swimming position the head and neck seem
to stretch high in an effort to keep well
out of the water. So similar in style and
feeling is our head to that of the cosmetic
spoon in the collection of the New York
Historical Society that identification as
FIG. 3. COSMETIC
SPOON.
been separately made and cemented in
place, and the lid of the shallow bowl turns
on a pivot set in the neck of the animal.
The maiden's hair, also made in slate, has
been arranged in a similar fashion to that
of the little head just described, except for
longer and fuller braids on the right side.
Her slender hips are confined with a narrow
girdle made of slate (now restored), and her
nude body with its dimpled back and wellformed breasts has been created with loving
care by a master craftsman for some member of a luxurious and playful society.
Unfortunately her feet have been broken
EGYPTIAN,
part of such a spoon is unavoidable, and
placing its date in the reign of Akh-en-Aten
(about 1360 B.C.) is an obvious conclusion.
A similar problem arose when our Egyptian expedition found on the site of the
palace of Amen-hotpe I II at Thebes a small
alabaster head (fig. 2)3 of a pudgy-faced
child with a fat little neck cut back at the
base for insertion in the body of a figure.
Her black hair, which is realistically worked
in slate and attached to the head, is dressed
in the fashionable "bob" of the late XVI II
Dynasty, with low bangs over the forehead
and a side lock of braids reminiscent of the
traditional Egyptian "lock of youth."
Some years later, the Museum acquired
by purchase an exquisite alabaster cosmetic
spoon (fig. 3)4 in the form of a swimming
girl being towed along by a pet gazelle,
forming the covered bowl of the spoon. The
heads of the maiden and the gazelle have
3 Acc. no. 11.215.533. H. 2.8 cm. Rogers Fund.
4 Acc. no. 26.2.47. L. 22.5 cm. Rogers Fund.
ABOUT
1400
B.C.
off and lost. This toilet spoon, as in the
case of the wooden spoon, makes the identification of the alabaster head as part of a
similar spoon certain. On the other hand,
the head prompts us to date the alabaster
spoon in the reign of Amen-hotpe III
(about 1400 B.C.), on the site of whose
palace the head was found.
One wonders, in connection with these
fanciful cosmetic dishes, just what part
swimming played in the life of ancient
Egypt, and it is with real surprise that in
this country with its hot climate, its omnipresent river (infested with crocodiles, to
be sure), and its many garden pools and
canals almost no reference to either swimming or bathing is found on the monuments
or in literature. There is in the Turin Museum an ostrakon5with a painted scene of a
girl diving to the bottom of a pool, intent
5 Jean Capart, Documents pour servir a
l'etude de l'art egyptien (Paris, 1927), vol. i,
pl. 73 a.
174
BULLETIN
OF THE METROPOLITAN
MUSEUM OF ART
a red fish, which lieth beautiful on my
fingers."6
From just such a pretty fiction must have
arisen the inspiration for these swimming
on catching a fish which is just slipping
from her grasp. And there is; of course, the
fragmentary love song of a maiden: "It is
pleasant to go to the pond in order to bathe
me in thy presence, that I may let thee see
my beauty in my tunic of finest royal linen,
I go down into the
when it is wet ....
water, and come forth again to thee with
girls.
DOROTHYW. PHILLIPS.
6 A. Erman and A. M. Blackman, The Literature of the Ancient Egyptians (London, 1927),
p. 243.
ACCESSIONSAND LOANS
JUNE I-JULY 1, 1941
THE AMERICAN
WING
EGYPTIAN
Sculpture, Loan from Carl Holmes (2); Pur- Manuscripts, American, Dutch, Gift from Mrs.
T. Bache Bleecker(2).
chases (2).
Metalwork, Bequestfrom Edward Pearce Casey
GREEK AND ROMAN
(2); Gift from Bayard Verplanck (6).
Metalwork, Greek, Purchase (I).
Woodwork and Furniture, Purchase (I).
FAR EASTERN
Embroideries, Chinese, Gift from Mrs. M. W.
Louson (i).
Metalwork, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Siamese,
Loan from Carl Holmes (78).
Sculpture, Chinese, Siamese, Gift from Paul D.
Cravath (deceased) (i); Loan from Carl Holmes
(13); Purchases (2).
NEAR EASTERN
Costume Accessories, Indian, Gift from Mrs.
Herbert E. Winlock (2).
Metalwork, Indian, Persian, Loan from Carl
Holmes ( l ).
Sculpture, Persian, Loanfrom Carl Holmes (4).
MEDIAEVAL
Textiles, Byzantine, Purchase (i).
AND MODERN
RENAISSANCE
Embroideries, French, Gift from Mrs. Stanley M.
Rumbough and her sisters, Mrs. Colgate Greble
and Mrs. J. Wright Rumbough(7).
Medals, Plaques, etc., American, Italian, Gift
from The Society of Medalists (2); Purchase (i).
Textiles, English, French, Gifts from Miss
Marion P. Bolles (i), Mrs. Edward S. Harkness
(i); Purchases (4).
PAINTINGS
Drawings, American, Dutch, English, French,
Loan from Mrs. Erminie Arling (i); Purchases
(10).
Paintings, American, Dutch, Italian, Gift in
memory of Felix M. Warburg by his wife and
children, Mrs. Walter N. Rothschild, and Paul
Felix, Gerald F., Frederick M., and Edward M.
M. Warburg (3); Gift from The Educational
Alliance (i); Loan from Mrs. J. Amory Haskell
(1).
PRINTS
Gifts from Lily S. Converse (6), Nathan C.
Kantor (11), Victor Perard (4), Mrs. Carr Van
Anda (i), Mrs. Herbert E. Winlock (I), Mrs.
FrederickAdams Woods (i).
Purchases: Books (12).
LIBRARY
Books, Giftsfrom Miss Alice Brady (I), Dr: Max
Farrand (I), President and Council of The Historical Society of Pennsylvania (2), Mrs. Fraser
Moffat (i), Universal Publishing Company (I),
Herbert E. Winlock (17).
Photographs, Gifts from International Business
Machines Corporation(79), T. K. Schmuck (21).
EXHIBITIONS
AUGUST 18-SEPTEMBER
Continued
Continued
Continued
Continued
Beginning September 6
Through September I
15, 1941
The China Trade and Its Influences
Costume Accessories of the Nineteenth Century
Prints by Whistler
Pages from Early Korans
Prints: Scenes of the Revolutionary War. Lent through
the Authorities of the Golden Gate International
Exposition
Paintings and Sculpture Allocated to City Institutions by the New York City WPA Art Project
175
Gallery D 6
Gallery E 15
Gallery A 23
Gallery E 13 B
Basement
Corridor,
Wing K
83d St. Gallery