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Egyptian Limestone Relief of Mentuemhat, 25th-26th Dynasty, c. 650 B.C.

Exhibited by Rupert Wace

Material limestone with polychromy

Dimensions 25 x 13.5 cm

Place of Creation Thebes, Egypt

Price price on application

Status Not Vetted

About the Work

This finely carved relief is from the tomb of the official Mentuenmhat, seen here striding in left profile. He wears a long kilt, broad collar, and a sash across his bare torso, his delicately modelled face with bald head, aquiline nose, carefully outlined eye, and arching brow. He extends his left arm across his body with palm upraised in a speaking gesture and reaches down with his right towards a trumpet-shaped object preserved at the edge of the fragment; the end of a large sistrum can be seen behind his head.

Mentuemhet was a Theban official and prominent figure in the 25th-26th Dynasties, serving during the reigns of Taharqa and Psamtik I. From a well-known Theban family, he rose through the ranks to become the fourth priest of Amun, mayor of Thebes, and governor of Upper Egypt. His tomb is the largest ever constructed for a non-royal figure, and its reliefs can be found in numerous museums, including the British Museum, the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, and the Yale University Art Gallery.

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Provenance

Jack Josephson (1930-2022) acquired prior to 1982; Collection of a private foundation; Private collection, United Kingdom, acquired in 2017.

Jack Josephson
The child of immigrants, Jack Josephson began life as a builder and engineer, and met with great success. A trip to Egypt inspired a passion for the ancient world, and he became an avid collector and scholar of antiquities, studying under Bernard Bothmer at the Met. A true gentleman scholar, he held a professorship at New York University and was the author of numerous academic papers and books. He served as chairman of the cultural property advisory committee of the United States under George Bush.

Literature

J. Uhlenbrock, Ancient Art: From Collections in New York and Connecticut, Neuberger Museum, State University of New York, College at Purchase, 10 October 1982-13 February 1983 (Purchase, NY, 1982), p. 6, no. 34.

For other reliefs from the same tomb, see e.g. examples in the M.H. de Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco (acc. no. 51.4.2) and the Yale University Art Gallery (acc. no. 2003.28.1). See also examples referenced in B. S. Lesko, 'Three Reliefs from the Tomb of Mentuemhat,' Journal of American Research Center in Egypt, vol. 9 (1971-1972), pp. 85-88, and H. J. Kantor, 'A Fragment of Relief from the Tomb of Mentuemhat at Thebes (No. 34),' Journal of Near Eastern Studies, vol. 19, no. 3 (1960), pp. 213-216.

This relief is documented in the archives of the unpublished ‘Corpus of Late Egyptian Sculpture’, by the great Egyptian art historian Bernard V. Bothmer, which can be found at the Brooklyn Museum.