Model Fast Boat with Fourteen Rowers

Place of OriginProbably from Meir, Egypt

DateMiddle Kingdom, Dynasty 11-12, 2040-1795 BCE

Dimensions14 1/4 × 14 1/2 × 42 3/4 in. (36.2 × 36.8 × 108.6 cm)

MediumWood with paint

ClassificationSculpture

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1972.15

On View

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

Label TextBeginning in the Old Kingdom (2650–2184 BCE), Egyptian tombs often included models and images of objects, people, and activities from daily life. These were meant to act as magical substitutes in the next world. The practice became commonplace in the Middle and New Kingdoms. Boats were the most important means of transportation in Egypt; travelers, fishermen, crops, soldiers, even heavy building stones were carried on the water. This model represents a “fast boat,” a small, light vessel with no room for cargo; its primary use was to carry messages up and down the Nile. The boat probably comes from the tomb of an official whose job required the quick exchange of information. Though the miniature rowers in model boats are usually identical, here their wigs and clothing differ slightly, suggesting that someone constructed the ensemble from two or more sets of ancient figures that were similar in size, style, and paint.Published References

"Recent accessions...;" Art Quarterly, vol. 35, no. 4, 1972, p. 435, repr. 434.

"La Chronique des Arts," Gazette des Beaux-Arts, vol. 81, no. 1249, Feb. 1973, repr. p. 101.

"Treaures for Toledo," Toledo Museum of Art Museum News, vol. 19, nos. 2, 3, 1973, p. 44, repr.

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

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. 46, repr. (col.) p. 11, 47, (det.), p. 46.

Exhibition History

Toledo Museum of Art, Hands On Egypt, Sept. 18, 1998 - Aug. 31, 2000.

Toledo Museum of Art, The Egypt Experience: Secrets of the Tomb, October 29, 2010-January 8, 2012.

Comparative ReferencesSee also Landstrom, Bjorn, Ships of the Pharaohs, New York, 1970, pp. 71, 75.

cf. Hayes, William C., The Sceptre of Egypt, New York, 1953, vol. I, pp. 267-274.

cf. Glanville, S.R.K., Catalogue of Egyptian antiquities in the British Museum II: Wooden boats, London, 1973, pp. 20-22, pl. IVa.

cf. Spanel, Donald B., "Ancient Egyptian boat models of the Herakleopolitan period and eleventh dynasty," Studien zur Altagyptischen Kultur, bd. 12, 1986, pp. 243-253.