Abstract

A bronze figurine of a snake-legged Anubis with ‘jackal’s head’ and male torso is unlike any of the canonical representations of the god both in terms of iconography and style, that place it within the artistic production of the Roman period. The figurine, mentioned by K. Michałowski in L’art de l’ancienne Égypte, was included by J.-Cl. Grenier in his discussion of Anubis iconography in Anubis alexandrin et romain. Publishing a detailed description of the figurine for the first time, the present author has concentrated on an analysis of iconographic features and traits of style, justifying the uniqueness of the snake-legged form of Anubis in the religious iconography of the Roman period, seen from the perspective of an evolution in Egyptian mortuary beliefs. A comparison of material and formal characteristics leads to conclusion that the bronze snake-legged figurine of Anubis, the form of which reflects the syncretistic religious and artistic ideas of the age, was executed at some point between the late First and the middle of the Second century AD.