Egyptian Cobra Brooch

$95.00 at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The cobra on a small, less than five-square-inch relief plaque crafted in Egypt sometime between 400–30 BCE informs this timeless brooch. The plaque belongs to a special class of object that decidedly presents an unfinished depiction of a subject, but is considered a complete work in itself. In many cases, the depiction was deemed an unsuitable representation of formal subjects, including personifications of kingship and certain gods. Sometimes referred to by Egyptologists as "sculptor's models" or…