Metjetji with His Sons

CultureEgyptian

Dateca. 2375-2345 B.C.E.

MediumLimestone with paint

DimensionsOverall: 56 × 30 1/2 inches (142.24 × 77.47 cm)

Credit LinePurchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust

Object number52-7/1

On View

On view

Gallery Location

Collections

Ancient Art

Terms

DescriptionMechechy strides to the right with his left leg stretched forward and holds in his raised left hand a staff. his hair is long; the beard under his chin is short. He wears a collar, and his kilt stretches down to just above his knees. The child behind him grasps Mechechy's leg below the knee with his left hand; the child in front holds Mechechy's staff in his left hand and a bird in his lowered right. Reddish ochre paint remains on Mechechy's limbs and face; black on his hair.Exhibition History

Exhibition History

L’art egyptien au temps des pyramides, Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Paris, April 6-July 12, 1999, no. 146; Egyptian Art in the Age of the Pyramids, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, September 16, 1999-January 9, 2000, no. 153; L’art egyptien au temps des pyramides/ Egyptian Art in the Age of the Pyramids, Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, February 13-May 22, 2000.

Gallery Label

This relief and its companion on your right stood at the entrance to the tomb of the nobleman Metjetji. Metjetji appears much bigger than his two children at his feet. This reflects the relative importance of the figures rather than their actual relative sizes.

The artist has portrayed Metjetji with a large body and broad shoulders, but a small head to make the image seem especially grand. Some 4,000 years later, Michelangelo used a somewhat similar device in painting the Sistine Chapel. The long inscriptions include Metjetji's official titles.

Provenance

Tomb of Metjetji, Sakkara, Egypt;

With Paul Mallon, New York, by 1951;

Purchased from Mallon by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1951.

Published References

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), 15.

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), 24.

Peter Kaplony, Studien zum Grab des Methethi (Bern: Abegg Stiftung, 1976), 26-31, no. 5, 44-48.

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), 111.

Christine Ziegler, “La tombe de Métchétchi,” in L’art egyptien au temps des pyramides, exh. cat. (Paris: Réunion des musées nationaux, 1999), 315, 318, no. 146.

Christine Ziegler, “The Tomb of Metjetji,” in Egyptian Art in the Age of the Pyramids, exh. cat. (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1999), 408, 412-14, no. 153.

Bertha Porter et al., Topographical Bibliography of Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic Texts, Reliefs, and Paintings, vol. 3, Memphis, pt. 2, Saqqara to Dashūr (Oxford: Griffith Institute, 2003), 646.

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), 7, fig.10.

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