Relief of Mentu-em-hat and Anubis

CultureEgyptian

Date665-650 B.C.E.

MediumLimestone with paint

DimensionsOverall: 20 5/16 × 15 13/16 inches (51.59 × 40.16 cm)

Credit LinePurchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust

Object number48-28/2

On View

On view

Gallery Location

Collections

Ancient Art

Terms

DescriptionIn this very low relief, Mentuemhat, with his hands raised in paryer, faces the canine-headed deity Anubis. Anubis carries in his left hand the canine-headed was-scepter. He holds in his other hand an ankh. Mentuemhat is dressed as a priest in a panther skin covered with rosettes. Servants follow behind him with offerengs for Anubis. Panels to be carved into hieroglyphs appear under the table of one servant and under the top register line on the right. The panther head and many of the rosettes on his garb are incomplete, and his skirt has been left without pleats. Graffiti--Greek letters, perhaps Coptic--are scratched on the relief.Exhibition History

Exhibition History

Egyptian Sculpture of the Late Period, The Brooklyn Museum, New York, October 18, 1960- January 9, 1961, no. 14.

Gallery Label

Probably one of the most able politicians/statesmen of his time, Mentu-em-hat maintained political power in southern Egypt though the reign of four different pharaohs and three invasions by Assyrian armies. Here, he is portrayed as a priest before the jackal-headed god of cemeteries, Anubis. The heavy bags under his eyes and that strong jowl are features of man in late middle age; his look, that of man accustomed to wielding great power.

Provenance

Tomb of Mentuemhat (no. 34), Thebes [1];

With James E. Pullen, Oakland, CA, by 1948;

Purchased from Pullen by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1948.

NOTES:

[1] See, for example, Edna Russmann, “Relief Decoration in the Tomb of Mentuemhat,” Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt 31 (1994): 12.

Published References

The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, The William Rockhill Nelson Collection, 3^rd ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1949), 15.

William Stevenson Smith, The Art and Architecture of Ancient Egypt (Baltimore: Penguin Books, 1958), 248, 252, plate 182a.

Ross E. Taggart, ed., Handbook of the Collections in the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 4^th ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1959), 21.

Bernard Bothmer, Egyptian Sculpture of the Late Period (New York: The Brooklyn Museum, 1960), 16-17, no. 14, plate 13, fig. 32.

Bertha Porter and Rosalind Moss, Topographical Bibliography of Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic Texts, Reliefs, and Paintings, vol. 1, The Theban Necropolis, pt. 1, Private Tombs, 2^nd ed. (Oxford: Griffith Institute, Ashmolean Museum, 1960), 60.

Jean Leclant, Montouemhat: quatrième prophète d'Amon, prince de la ville (Cairo: Impr. de l'Institut français d'archéologie orientale, 1961), 185.

William Stevenson Smith, The Art and Architecture of Ancient Egypt, 2^nd ed. (Baltimore: Penguin Books, 1961), 248, 252, plate 182a.

Hollis Baker, Furniture in the Ancient World: Origins and Evolution, 3100-475 B.C. (London: Connoissiuer, 1966), 155, fig. 242.

Ross E. Taggart and George L. McKenna, eds., Handbook of the Collections in The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, Kansas City, Missouri, vol. 1, Art of the Occident, 5th ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1973), 29.

Peter Der Manuelian, “An Essay in Reconstruction: Two Registers from the Tomb of Mentuemhat at Thebes (no. 34),” Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts. Abteilungen Kairo 39 (1983): 147, nos. 47-48.

Roger Ward and Patricia J. Fidler, eds., The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection (New York: Hudson Hills Press, in association with Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1993), 114.

Bertha Porter, Rosalind Moss, and Ethel Burney, Topographical Bibliography of Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic Texts, Reliefs, and Paintings, vol. 1, The Theban Necropolis, pt. 1, Private Tombs, 2^nd ed. (Oxford: Griffith Institute, Ashmolean Museum, 1994), 60.

Edna Russmann, “Relief Decoration in the Tomb of Mentuemhat,” Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt 31 (1994): 10-12, fig. 10.

Alan Lloyd, “The Late Period,” in The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt, ed. Ian Shaw (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000), 378-79.

Deborah Emont Scott, ed., The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection, 7th ed. (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2008), 9, fig. 18.

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