Crab from "Cleopatra's Needle"
A weathered bronze crab lies on a pale granite plinth against a black background, its body a rounded, pitted shell with small raised eyes at the front and a clawed limb extended to the left. The dark, textured surface and side-on view emphasize its low, sprawling form. It is a crab from an obelisk support associated with Cleopatra's Needle.
Look closer: Two small eyes are raised on the top of the shell, easy to overlook against the textured surface.
- Artist
- Unknown
- Date
- 13 BCE
- Medium
- Bronze
- Source
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art
- Size
- 4000 × 2667 px
Public domain · The Metropolitan Museum of Art releases this image under CC0 (latest date -13).
Rights checked 2026-11-05 · tier A · as stated by the source: CC0 (The Met Open Access, isPublicDomain=true)
Rights checked 2026-11-05 · tier A · as stated by the source: CC0 (The Met Open Access, isPublicDomain=true)
Credit (appreciated, not required for public-domain works): The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of Henry H. Gorringe, 1881