File:Egyptian - Man with Calf and Dog - Walters 22422 - Detail A.jpg

Original file(1,800 × 1,661 pixels, file size: 3.44 MB, MIME type: image/jpeg)

Captions

Captions

Add a one-line explanation of what this file represents

Summary edit

Man with Calf and Dog   (Wikidata search (Cirrus search) Wikidata query (SPARQL)  Create new Wikidata item based on this file)
Artist
Anonymous (Egypt)Unknown author
Title
Man with Calf and Dog
Description
English: This Old Kingdom relief fragment has suffered severe damage from salt since its original carving. This has caused pitting over many areas of the piece, especially on the foot of the man, the calf, and the dog. The preserved carving is in fine, raised relief, including such small details as the hair at the tip of the calf's tail and the 'elbow' on each of the dog's legs. The block was originally painted, and traces of red pigment still remains in some areas.

There are two separate scenes actually depicted, easily distinguished by the different scales of the figures. On the left is a man at small scale who bends over a calf, pushing at the rear with one hand while pulling on the rope tied around its neck with the other. A single man doing this is uncommon, and the sharp angle at which the servant bends in order to simultaneously lead and push the calf from behind is also unusual. The man has short hair and wears a short, fitted shendyt with a large tie at the waist. This type of shendyt is first seen in the 4th Dynasty, but continues into the 6th Dynasty. The musculature of the man's biceps is paralleled in tombs of both the 4th and 5th Dynasty, such as the tomb of Nofer at Giza and that of Sekhem-ankh-ptah at Saqqara. Above the calf is an inscription which reads "Bringing the calf" (jn.t bhz).

Facing the man and calf is a dog, identifiable by his "long narrow muzzle, nearly straight facial profile, slender body, long neck and limbs" (Brewer, 116) as a greyhound, with a rope collar and curled tail. The dog stands at his master's feet, to whose scale he is carved. The tomb owner's staff crosses the body of the dog, as does his left foot. Above the dog is his name, Beha (bh3) possibly an abbreviation of "behkai" (oryx antelope), a dog's name known from other contexts. Beginning in the 5th Dynasty, dogs are commonly placed in hunting scenes, in the fields, or under the deceased's chair. However, a very similar scene to this one, in which the tomb owner stands with his dog at his feet, can be found at Giza in the tomb of Ha-ef-Ra-ankh from the middle or late 5th Dynasty. The type of the dog, as well as his collar are so similar that it is likely that the relief comes from this tomb or was made by the same craftsmen team in a tomb nearby.

The dual composition of the relief fragment suggests it is part of a larger wall scene in which various servants of the tomb owner's estate bring and present the products and wealth of his holdings to him. During the Old Kingdom these types of scenes were generally placed on the east and west walls of a tomb. The thick border which forms the left edge and base of the scene might imply that it was located either next to a door or as part of a long wall with multiple false doors and/or multiple scenes. The tomb from which the fragment originated must be located at Giza, and dates to the middle or late 5th Dynasty based on relief and composition.
Date circa 2400 BC
date QS:P571,-2400-00-00T00:00:00Z/9,P1480,Q5727902
(Old Kingdom of Egypt
era QS:P2348,Q177819
)
Medium carved limestone, red pigment
Dimensions 43 × 101 × 3.5 cm (16.9 × 39.7 × 1.3 in)
institution QS:P195,Q210081
Accession number
22.422
Place of creation Giza, Egypt (?)
Object history
  • Paris, 1914 [First time reported by the Egyptologist Raymond Weill, who saw the relief in Paris in 1914]
  • Joseph Brummer, New York and Paris [date and mode of acquisition unknown]
  • Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, 1949, 101, lot 474
  • Walters Art Museum, 1949, by purchase
Exhibition history To Arrest the Ravages of Time: Caring for Art at the Walters. The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. 1996. In Search of Ancient Treasure: 40 Years of Collecting. The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. 1978.
Credit line Museum purchase, 1949
Inscriptions [Transcription] Inscription above the dog: bh3; [Translation] Inscription above the dog: Beha [name of dog]; [Transcription] Inscription above the calf: jn.t bhz; [Translation] Inscription above the calf: Bring the calf.
Source Walters Art Museum: Home page  Info about artwork
Permission
(Reusing this file)
VRT Wikimedia

This work is free and may be used by anyone for any purpose. If you wish to use this content, you do not need to request permission as long as you follow any licensing requirements mentioned on this page.

The Wikimedia Foundation has received an e-mail confirming that the copyright holder has approved publication under the terms mentioned on this page. This correspondence has been reviewed by a Volunteer Response Team (VRT) member and stored in our permission archive. The correspondence is available to trusted volunteers as ticket #2012021710000834.

If you have questions about the archived correspondence, please use the VRT noticeboard. Ticket link: https://ticket.wikimedia.org/otrs/index.pl?Action=AgentTicketZoom&TicketNumber=2012021710000834
Find other files from the same ticket: SDC query (SPARQL)

Licensing edit

Object
Public domain

This work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 100 years or fewer.


You must also include a United States public domain tag to indicate why this work is in the public domain in the United States.
Photograph
w:en:Creative Commons
attribution share alike
This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
Attribution: Walters Art Museum
You are free:
  • to share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work
  • to remix – to adapt the work
Under the following conditions:
  • attribution – You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
  • share alike – If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same or compatible license as the original.
GNU head Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled GNU Free Documentation License.

File history

Click on a date/time to view the file as it appeared at that time.

Date/TimeThumbnailDimensionsUserComment
current01:07, 26 March 2012Thumbnail for version as of 01:07, 26 March 20121,800 × 1,661 (3.44 MB)File Upload Bot (Kaldari) (talk | contribs)== {{int:filedesc}} == {{Walters Art Museum artwork |artist = Egyptian |title = ''Man with Calf and Dog'' |description = {{en|This Old Kingdom relief fragment has suffered severe damage from salt since its original carving. T...