Stela of Inamennayefnebu

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This is one of four stelae found near the doorway of the brick chapel of the family of Saiah, a wab, or purification priest of Amun who lived during the latter half of the 22nd Dynasty. The original tomb in whose courtyard this chapel was built dates to the 11th Dynasty, over a millennium earlier. All of the stelae are made of wood, painted in green, red, yellow and black on a white gesso ground. Inamennayefnebu, a son of Saiah and a low-ranking official in the service of Amun, stands before a statue of Re-Harakhty-Atum and raises his arms in an attitude of worship. Between the two figures is an offering stand; flanking the scene are the emblems of the east (viewer right) and west (viewer left) supporting a curved sky line. The back of the stela is undecorated. The style of Inamennayefnebu's stela is less elegant than that of his father, Saiah, with the colors painted in solid blocks within thick black outlines. The owner's figure, garbed in a pleated, transparent festival robe, is comparatively broad and heavy, common traits of this period.

Egyptian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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.

Metropolitan Museum of Art