Recent Additions to the Egyptian Collection Author(s): William C.

Hayes Source: The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, New Series, Vol. 7, No. 2 (Oct., 1948), pp. 60-63 Published by: The Metropolitan Museum of Art Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3258084 . Accessed: 17/06/2011 05:42
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RECENT TO

ADDITIONS
COLLECTION

THE

EGYPTIAN

BY WILLIAM C. HAYES Asociate Curator of Egyptian Art

Blade of a small bronze knife of the type used by Egyptian scribes of the New Kingdom for trim-

ming their brushes, cutting sheets of papyrus, and the like. It was once the property of the Chief Steward Thot-hotpe, who served Het-shepswet during her reign as "king" of Egypt (1497-1482 B.C.), and is inscribed with the title and name of this important official. The blade, minus its curved handle, was found by the Museum's Egyptian Expedition in a rubbish heap in front of Het-shepswet's temple at Deir el Bahri. The inscription and the decoration at the base of the blade are engraved in the surface of the bronze and inlaid with strips of thin sheet gold. Length 51/2 in. Rogers Fund, 1923

Water-color palette, inscribed with the titles and name of the "Mayor and Vizier, Amunern-opet," who functioned as prime minister of Egypt under King Amun-hotpe II of the xvIII
Dynasty
(1450-1424

B.C.). The palette,

probably

from Amun-em-opet's

tomb (no. 29) at Thebes,

is of polished boxwood. A narrow compartment in the back, once provided with a sliding cover, held the vizier's paint brushes, and on the top are eight oval cavities containing the much used blocks of dry pigment: red, black, white, red (traces only), blue, green, yellow, and red. The painting of pictures presumably was a hobby with the Vizier Amun-em-opet as it has been with Great Britain's recent prime minister, many great statesmen before and since his day-including Mr. Winston Churchill. Length 8/16 in. Rogers Fund, 1948

60

Red granite statuette of the granary official Ny-ku-Rej, who is portrayed in conventional fashion, seated cross-legged on the ground, reading from a roll of papyrus which he holds spread open on his lap. The statuette, carved in the v Dynasty (2560-2420 B.C.) and probably from a mastabeh tomb at Gizeh or Sakkiareh, is an interesting example of the Egyptians' sparing use of paint to enhance the wig, eyes, and other details of a figure made of a hard, elaborately grained stone. Height 123%6in. Rogers Fund, I948

61

iLEFT: Bronze statuette of the moon god Khonsu j:;| ?..

2

.g

..0; :^

^
2^^-

:of
.5^5

;0Thebes, made during the xxvi Dynasty (663B.C.) for a priest

and librarian

of the god

-d: ::f00 .I. 0'XCH : w0

': :* ff

j ;

.........

A turn of Heliopolis, who was named Pe-kapu and was the son of the Prophet of A tun, Pe-iry0-~hap, _ : and the House-Mistress Her-yeb-Udot. Here, as frequently, Khonsu is represented witli the head of a falcon surmounted by the moon's disk and crescent, the latter curiously striated 1lke a pair of horns. The eyes and the broad col; . lar are inlaid with bits of sheet gold; and on the belt there is a small and 'very indistinct inscription enclosed within a long oval-probably a the god's name. Two heavy bronze ri- epetition of tenons project downwa-ds fro,m the lunderside \ ; of the base. Height 7/e6,in. Clapman Fund, i948

yotefef,

of the late xii Dynasty

(about

i850 B.C.)

found by the Museum's Egyptian Expedition in a tomb east of Deir el-Bahri in western Thebes.
Though damaged and lacking its arms and base, to the skill the figure is an eloquent testimonial and keen powers of observation of the Middle

Kingdom craftsman. These qualities are especially apparent in the detailed and sensitive modeling of the torso of the elderly steward. Shedy-yotefef's name and title appear on a : coffin from the same tomb. Heiglht 77/ in.
Rogers Fund, i935

62

Bionze aegis in the form of a broad collar surmoutnted by a small head of the goddess Isis. Bronzes of this type were eith,er "cult objects ,used in the worship of the goddess or
RIGHT:

votive

offerings

de-

posited in the temples,"

to quote Dows Duhnham in the Bulletin of the

Boston Museum of Fine Arts (93i, p. o104).This

exa_mple,zhlch is of exceptionally fine quality and workmanship, was

probably made dur:'ing the xxv or xxvI Dynasty

(751-525 B.C.). Isis wears

above her h,ead a diadent of cobra heads and

the sutn'sdisk and cow's lhorins appropriate to her rioleas a sky goddess.
7'Thecorneas of her eyes are of ivory or alabaster inlaid into the bronze sockets. Height 87/8 in. Rogeers Ftund, 1948

Bronze casket containthe nmummified remains ing of three young ichneumons (and surmounted by bronze figures of Iwo of the ania imals. The ichneumon, co nmmonEgyptian carnivore related to the moongoose, zwasassociated with the solar cults of Atuni of Heliopolis and Horus of Letopolis and zwith that of the cobra goddess Udo of Lower Egypt. Probably front LowerEgypt, Period (332-30 Plolemaic B.C.). Length 51/8 in. Gift of Maguid Semeda, 1948
LEFT:

63