Inlay fragment, rekhyt birds

Inlay fragment, rekhyt birds

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Mosaic glass techniques allowed multiples of an image to be created: a figural or design composition was made by bundling colored glass canes, which were then drawn out into a long bar (10.130.2729, 17.194.2463) that was sectioned at right angles, probably by being struck with an appopriate tool, to produce small inlay tiles. Such elements could also be used side by side to create repeating patterns for long borders (26.7.1228). Here it looks as though mosaic tiles with rekhyt birds were created and refused into a larger composition with other elements that had already been preformed. Possibly the additional remelting led to some of the distortion one sees in the lines and patterns.

Egyptian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Inlay fragment, rekhyt birdsInlay fragment, rekhyt birdsInlay fragment, rekhyt birdsInlay fragment, rekhyt birdsInlay fragment, rekhyt birds

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.