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Sculpture of the deity Melqart, Cádiz Museum
Natalia Garber & Alina Koroleva • Digital art, 2023
Description of the artwork «Sculpture of the deity Melqart, Cádiz Museum»
Bronze, melted in wax. Height, 36 cm.
Archaic Phoenician period (VIII-VII centuries B.C.).
Source: Sancti Petri (San Fernando Chiclana de la Frontera, Cádiz).
Commentary: The five Phoenician bronzes that appeared in the vicinity of the ancient temple of Melqart-Hercules, preserved in the Cadiz Museum, represent a unique set in the Phoenician world. Classical sources from the Roman period concur, pointing to the strange nature of the cult practiced in this sanctuary of Cadiz, full of distinctly Phoenician elements. One of these was the absence of its own image of the god, whose attributes were personified in the iconography of other Egyptian (Osiris) and Syrian (Resheph) deities. In this work we see Melqart as a transcript of Osiris, with the canons of pharaonic art, with the skirt (nemes) and crown of this god (athef). Melqart thus acquires a funerary character similar to the Egyptian Osiris as a deity who dies and rises again. According to the Roman historian Justino, the fame of the temple of Cadiz had much to do with the fact that it contained the ashes of the mortal body of "Hercules".
https://www.museosdeandalucia.es/web/museodecadiz/obras-singulares/-/asset_publisher/GRnu6ntjtLfp/content/estatuilla-de-divinidad?redirect=%2Fweb%2Fmuseodecadiz%2Fobras-singulares%3Fp_p_id%3D101_INSTANCE_GRnu6ntjtLfp%26p_p_lifecycle%3D0%26p_p_state%3Dnormal%26p_p_mode%3Dview%26p_p_col_id%3Dcolumn-2%26p_p_col_count%3D1%26_101_INSTANCE_GRnu6ntjtLfp_delta%3D6%26_101_INSTANCE_GRnu6ntjtLfp_keywords%3D%26_101_INSTANCE_GRnu6ntjtLfp_advancedSearch%3Dfalse%26_101_INSTANCE_GRnu6ntjtLfp_andOperator%3Dtrue%26p_r_p_564233524_resetCur%3Dfalse%26_101_INSTANCE_GRnu6ntjtLfp_cur%3D3&inheritRedirect=true
Archaic Phoenician period (VIII-VII centuries B.C.).
Source: Sancti Petri (San Fernando Chiclana de la Frontera, Cádiz).
Commentary: The five Phoenician bronzes that appeared in the vicinity of the ancient temple of Melqart-Hercules, preserved in the Cadiz Museum, represent a unique set in the Phoenician world. Classical sources from the Roman period concur, pointing to the strange nature of the cult practiced in this sanctuary of Cadiz, full of distinctly Phoenician elements. One of these was the absence of its own image of the god, whose attributes were personified in the iconography of other Egyptian (Osiris) and Syrian (Resheph) deities. In this work we see Melqart as a transcript of Osiris, with the canons of pharaonic art, with the skirt (nemes) and crown of this god (athef). Melqart thus acquires a funerary character similar to the Egyptian Osiris as a deity who dies and rises again. According to the Roman historian Justino, the fame of the temple of Cadiz had much to do with the fact that it contained the ashes of the mortal body of "Hercules".
https://www.museosdeandalucia.es/web/museodecadiz/obras-singulares/-/asset_publisher/GRnu6ntjtLfp/content/estatuilla-de-divinidad?redirect=%2Fweb%2Fmuseodecadiz%2Fobras-singulares%3Fp_p_id%3D101_INSTANCE_GRnu6ntjtLfp%26p_p_lifecycle%3D0%26p_p_state%3Dnormal%26p_p_mode%3Dview%26p_p_col_id%3Dcolumn-2%26p_p_col_count%3D1%26_101_INSTANCE_GRnu6ntjtLfp_delta%3D6%26_101_INSTANCE_GRnu6ntjtLfp_keywords%3D%26_101_INSTANCE_GRnu6ntjtLfp_advancedSearch%3Dfalse%26_101_INSTANCE_GRnu6ntjtLfp_andOperator%3Dtrue%26p_r_p_564233524_resetCur%3Dfalse%26_101_INSTANCE_GRnu6ntjtLfp_cur%3D3&inheritRedirect=true
