West wall of the chapel of Kaemsenu with niches for Iretnub, Kaemsenu and Werdjedptah

West wall of the chapel of Kaemsenu with niches for Iretnub, Kaemsenu and Werdjedptah

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Kaemsenu was a priest associated with the cult of King Sahure, with the sun temple of King Neferirkare, and with the pyramid of King Niuserre. The wall of his chapel incorporates three offering niches: the one on the left for his wife Iretnub, in the center for himself, and on the right for Werdjedptah (probably a relative) and his wife. One of Kaemsenu's statues has been placed behind the wall where it originally sat in the small serdab (statue chamber) and is visible through a slot in the wall. The hieroglyphs preserve an array of colors: pale yellow, red and brown from ochers, green from malachite, blue from Egyptian blue (a composite material used as a colorant), white from gypsum, and black from a form of carbon. In many cases, the pigments clearly were chosen to approximate the colors that the figures and objects forming the hieroglyphs would have had in nature. Other choices are less obvious-such as the blue consistently used to represent pots that are known to us in copper. Final outlines are either in red or black, depending apparently on which seemed to complement the colors of the sign.

Egyptian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

West wall of the chapel of Kaemsenu with niches for Iretnub, Kaemsenu and WerdjedptahWest wall of the chapel of Kaemsenu with niches for Iretnub, Kaemsenu and WerdjedptahWest wall of the chapel of Kaemsenu with niches for Iretnub, Kaemsenu and WerdjedptahWest wall of the chapel of Kaemsenu with niches for Iretnub, Kaemsenu and WerdjedptahWest wall of the chapel of Kaemsenu with niches for Iretnub, Kaemsenu and Werdjedptah

The Met collection of ancient Egyptian art consists of approximately 30,000 objects of artistic, historical, and cultural importance, dating from about 300,000 BCE to the 4th century CE. A signifcant percentage of the collection is derived from the Museum's three decades of archaeological work in Egypt, initiated in 1906 in response to increasing interest in the culture of ancient Egypt.