Relief Depicting Personified Estates from the Tomb of Akhtihotep

Relief Depicting Personified Estates from the Tomb of Akhtihotep

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Like the corner blocks from the same tomb (58.123), these reliefs are from the tomb of Akhtihotep. Here, figures carrying baskets of offerings on top of their heads personify the agricultural estates or farms that were to provision the ongoing funerary rites of the deceased. Very high relief contoured by deep straight edges is found in the late Third and early Fourth Dynasties. The lack of modeling and the serene, nonindividualized faces especially accord with the taste of the early Fourth Dynasty. Shadows created by the high relief combine with the absence of modeling to magnify the size of Akhtihotep's figures.

Egyptian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Relief Depicting Personified Estates from the Tomb of AkhtihotepRelief Depicting Personified Estates from the Tomb of AkhtihotepRelief Depicting Personified Estates from the Tomb of AkhtihotepRelief Depicting Personified Estates from the Tomb of AkhtihotepRelief Depicting Personified Estates from the Tomb of Akhtihotep

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.