Fragment of a Relief: Amenhotep III Offering to the Gods

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Fragment of a Relief: Amenhotep III Offering to the Gods

Place of OriginEgypt, from the Tura quarry near Memphis.

DateNew Kingdom, Dynasty 18, about 1390 BCE

DimensionsH: 32 in. (81.3 cm.); W: 24 3/4 in. (62.9 cm).

MediumLimestone.

ClassificationSculpture

Credit LineGift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1925.522

Not on View

Collections

Sculpture

Published References

Vyse, H., Appendix to Operations Carried on at the Pyramids of Gizeh in 1837, vol. III, London, 1842, pp. 97, 98 and plate opposite p. 97 (tablet no. 4).

Lepsius, K. Richard, Denkmaeler aus Aegypten und Aethiopien, Berlin, 1849-1856, vol. III, pl. 71, b.

Daressy, Georges, "Insciptions des carrières de Tourah et Mâshrah," Service des Antiquitiés de L'Egypt, Annales, 11, 1911, p. 259.

Luckner, Kurt, "The Art of Egypt, Part 2," Toledo Museum of Art Museum News, new series, vol. 14, no. 3, Fall 1971, p. 60, fig. 1.

Kozloff, Arielle P., and Elisabeth Delange, Egypt’s Dazzling Sun: Amenhotep III and His World, Cleveland, Cleveland Museum of Art, 1992, p. 116-117, Cat no. 3, repr., p. 116.

O'Connor, David, ed., Amenhotep III: Perspectives on His Reign, Ann Arbor, 1998, p. 64, no. 4, 81, no. 104, fig. 3.1, 3.15 (det. dwg.).

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. 51, repr. (col.) p. 51, (det.) p. 15.

Exhibition HistoryCleveland, Cleveland Museum of Art; Fort Worth, Kimbell Art Museum; Paris, Galeries Nationales Du Grand Palais, Egypt’s Dazzling Sun: Amenhotep III and His World, July 1992 – May 1993.

Toledo Museum of Art, The Mummies: From Egypt to Toledo, February 3- May 6, 2018.

Label TextAn early representation of one of the most powerful of all Egyptian kings, this relief carving was part of a larger composition known from 19th-century drawings. It represents Amenhotep honoring the gods by offering them incense and pure water. It also reflects the king’s extraordinary achievements as a patron of architecture. The relief stood at the Tura quarries, near the ancient capital of Memphis—a site famous as the source of the finest white limestone in all of Egypt. More than 1,000 years before Amenhotep III, it had provided the outer casing stones for the great pyramid at Giza. Amenhotep reopened and expanded the quarries at the beginning of his reign, which was marked by the construction or expansion of many great temples.