Servant Kneading Dough

CultureEgyptian

Dateca. 2494-2345 B.C.E.

MediumPainted limestone

DimensionsOverall: 9 3/4 × 11 × 4 3/8 inches (24.77 × 27.94 × 11.1 cm)

Credit LinePurchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust

Object number35-17

On View

On view

Gallery Location

Collections

Ancient Art

Terms

DescriptionKneeling and leaning forward with his feet tucked behind him, the servant kneads dough on a palette. His eyebrows, eyes, hair, and base are plainted black; brown fleshtones still are extant, and the edge of the palette has traces of red.Exhibition History

Exhibition History

Daily Life in Ancient Egypt, Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore, MD, September 18-October 23, 1960.

Echoes of Eternity: The Egyptian Mummy and the Afterlife, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, June 4, 1999–May 7, 2000.

Gallery Label

The inscription on this statue indicates that it depicts a man named Nebes, who was a baker for the tomb owner. The owner likely commissioned this statue because Nebes was a close friend or valued worker. By burying the statue near him, the tomb owner ensured that Nebes could remain part of the household in the afterlife. Arms stiff, the baker shapes the dough before him, providing bread for the deceased. Being identified as performing this service would have also helped Nebes earn his own passage to the afterlife.

Provenance

With Jean Mikas, Paris, by October 5, 1929;

Purchased from Mikas by Brummer Gallery, Paris and New York, stock no. P6680, October 5, 1929-1935 [1];

Purchased from Brummer Gallery by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1935.

NOTES:

[1] The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Cloisters Library and Archives, Brummer Gallery Records, Egyptian, Object inventory card number P6680.

Published References

James Henry Breasted, Jr., Egyptian Servant Statues, Bollingen Series 13 (Washington, D.C.: Bollingen Foundation, 1948), 27, no. 4, plate 27.

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), 16.

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), 23.

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