Relief of Ramses II

CultureEgyptian

Date1279-1213 B.C.E.

MediumRed quartzite

DimensionsOverall: 13 3/4 × 21 inches (34.93 × 53.34 cm)

Credit LinePurchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust

Object number32-195

On View

On view

Gallery Location

Collections

Ancient Art

Terms

DescriptionThis sunken relief depicts Ramses II, identified by the cartouche inscribed on his right. He holds a hes-vase, possible containing beer or wine. He wears the nemes, a striped cloth pulled tightly across the forehead with a long lappet hanging down the right side of his face. The front of the nemes has an uraeus, the serpent-image of kingship. The uraeus is associated with the goddess Wadjet, the patron deity of Lower Egypt. The cobra-goddess had the ability to spit venom on the king's enemies. He wears bracelets on both upper arms and a beaded broad collar. A long aquiline nose accents his distinctive profile.Exhibition History

Exhibition History

Discovery and Deceit: Archaeology and the Forger’s Craft, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, October 11, 1996-January 5, 1997; Michael C. Carlos Museum, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, February 8–May 18, 1997.

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

Gallery Label

One of the mightiest and most long-lived pharaohs, Ramses II is shown here early in his reign. He is about to perform a religious ritual with his raised, water-filled jar. His name appears in hieroglyphs on the left; they are deeply carved so subsequent rulers could not erase and replace them with their own names.

Although the artist portrays Ramses II with a long aquiline nose, the image remains highly idealized, as suited a ruler born of divine parents. The portrait's delicate features stand in contrast to the powerful, emotion-filled image of Sen-useret III behind you to the right.

Provenance

Alfréd Réth (1884-1966), Paris, by 1932;

Purchased from Reth, through Brummer Gallery, New York, by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1932.

Published References

The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, Handbook of the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1933), 116.

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), 113.

Deborah Emont Scott, ed., The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection, 7^th ed. (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2008), 9, fig. 17.

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