Fragment of a Manger with Ibexes

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Fragment of a Manger with Ibexes

Place of OriginEgypt, Akhetaten (modern Tell el-Amarna), North Palace

Date18th Dynasty (1550-1292 BCE), about 1350 BCE

Dimensions10 × 20 1/4 × 4 7/8 in. (25.4 × 51.4 × 12.4 cm)

MediumLimestone with paint

ClassificationSculpture

Credit LineGift of the Egypt Exploration Society

Object number

1925.744

On View

Toledo Museum of Art (2445 Monroe Street), Gallery, 02, Classic

DescriptionCarved in sunken relief, this limestone fragment depicts two ibexes approaching a feeding trough, with a bundle of fodder above. Remnants of black and green paint on the ibexes and fodder indicate its original vivid coloring. It was built from talatat-sized slabs, assembled with gypsum mortar.

Label TextThis carved limestone trough was excavated in 1923–1924 by the Egypt Exploration Society in the North Palace of Amarna, the capital city founded by Pharaoh Akhenaten. It is the best-preserved of fourteen mangers discovered in an animal enclosure near the royal residence. The relief shows two ibexes, or desert goats, approaching a pile of bundled fodder. Traces of red pigment remain on the animals’ backs and food bundles. The piece was distributed to the Toledo Museum of Art through the EES’s formal division of finds. Animals were kept at the royal residence at Amarna. They may have been used for sacrifices, royal hunts, or as part of a palace zoo. The natural style of the ibexes reflects a major artistic shift during Akhenaten’s reign (1353–1336 BCE), when artists broke from stiff, traditional styles to show more lifelike scenes.Published ReferencesNewton, F.G., "Excavations at El ' Amarnah 1923-24," Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, vol. 10, 1924, pp. 289-298, repr. pl. XXX, no. 2.

Luckner, Kurt T., "The Art of Egypt, Part 2," Toledo Museum of Art Museum News, new series, vol. 14, no.3, Fall 1971, p. 65, repr. fig. 6.

Porter, Bertha and Rosalind L.B. Moss, Topographical Bibliography of Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic Texts, Reliefs, and Paintings, vol. 4, Lower and Middle Egypt (Delta and Cairo to Asyut), Oxford, 1934, p. 193.

The Toledo Museum of Art, A Guide to the Collections, Toledo, 1976, repr. p. 6.

Osborn, Dale J., “A Rebuttal of Criticisms of Identifications of Animals Portrayed in the Tomb of Tutankhamun,” American Journal of Archaeology, vol. 89, no. 1, January 1985, p. 158, pl. 31,3.

Thomas, Nancy, ed., The American Discovery of Ancient Egypt, Los Angeles, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1995, p. 94.

Houlihan, Patrick F., The animal world of the pharaohs, Cairo, 1996, p. 59, fig. 43, p. 61.

The Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo Museum of Art Masterworks, Toledo, 2009, p. 64, repr. (col.).

Peck, William H., Sandra E. Knudsen and Paula Reich, Egypt in Toledo: The Ancient Egyptian Collection at the Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, Toledo Museum of Art, 2011, p. 58, repr. (col.).

Fortenberry, Diane ed., Souvenirs and New Ideas: Travel and Collecting in Egypt and the Near East, Oxford, UK, Oxbow Books, 2013, p. 31, repr. fig. 3.9, p. 33. Kemp, Barry J., "Animals in human settings (with special reference to the Amarna North Palace)." Horizon: The Amarna Project Newsletter, vol. 23 (Spring 2023), pp.39–64, fig. 14.5

Exhibition HistoryBrooklyn Museum, Detroit Institute of Arts, Akhenaten and Nefertiti, 1973, no. 151, pg. 212, repr.

Boston, Museum of Fine Arts; Houston Museum of Natural Science; Baltimore, Walters Art Gallery, Egypt's Golden Age: The Art of Living in the New Kingdom, 1558-1085 B.C., 1982-1983, no. 17, p. 48, repr.

San Antonio Museum of Art, The Sun Disk's Horizon: Life in the City of Akhenaten and Nefertiti, 1992-1993.

Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Saint Louis Art Museum; Indianapolis Museum of Art, The American discovery of ancient Egypt, 1995-1996, no. 12, p. 94, repr.

Toledo Museum of Art, The Egypt Experience: Secrets of the Tomb, 2010-2012.