File:Bust of a Boy consecrated to Isis.jpg

English: Luna marble, Bust of a Boy consecrated to Isis, Roman, 3rd century AD. A portrait bust of a young boy. The marble head is set straight, but the gaze is directed slightly to the right and the hair on the round head is cut very short with a heavy lock or bunch of curls falling over the right ear denoting the child was consecrated to Isis. The mouth is closed with depressed corners with a full upper lip and a lifeless and sad expression. Isis was an Egyptian goddess, wife of Osiris and mother of Horus. Isis in Hellenistic times became one of the most important deities in the Mediterranean world, and her cult spread throughout the Roman empire. Its special features were its Egyptian professional priests, initiation ceremonies, processions, dances and music to arouse religious fervour; Some details of the ritual of fire and water have lingered on in the ceremonies of Freemasonry. Collected by Charles, 2nd Earl of Egremont thence by descent, until the death in 1952 of the 3rd Lord Leconfield, who had given Petworth to the National Trust in 1947, and whose nephew and heir, John Wyndham, 6th Lord Leconfield and 1st Lord Egremont (1920-72), arranged for the acceptance of the major portion of the collections at Petworth in lieu of death duties (the first ever such arrangement) in 1956 by H.M. Treasury.