Ivory Fragment with the Personification of Victory and the Nile in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, January 2011

Fragment with Personifications of Victory and the Nile

Date: 6th century

Geography: Made in, probably Egypt

Culture: Byzantine

Medium: Ivory

Dimensions: Overall: 1 x 2 7/16 x 1/4 in. (2.6 x 6.2 x 0.6 cm)

Classification: Ivories

Credit Line: The Cloisters Collection, 1971

Accession Number: 1971.49.2

Text from: www.metmuseum.org/Collections/search-the-collections/7000...

These fragments may once have formed a single ivory celebrating the annual flooding of the Nile River. The Nike (personification of victory), holding a wreath, and the long-haired man (personification of the river) are surrounded by erotes, small childlike figures who in Egypt symbolized the number of feet that the river rose each year.

Text from the Metropolitan Museum of Art label.