False Door Relief from Tomb of Akhethotep

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False Door Relief from Tomb of Akhethotep

Place of OriginEgypt, Necropolis at Abusir (near Saqqara), Tomb of Akhethotep

DateOld Kingdom, early Dynasty 4, about 2575-2551 BCE

Dimensions39 1/4 × 13 7/8 × 1 1/4 in. (99.7 × 35.2 × 3.2 cm)

MediumLimestone with paint and bitumen

ClassificationSculpture

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

Object number

1959.39

On View

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

Collections

Sculpture

Published ReferencesPeck, 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. 34, repr. (col.) p. 35. Porter, Bertha, and Rosalind L. B. Moss, Topographical Bibliography of Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic Texts, Reliefs, and Paintings. Volume III: Memphis. Part 2: Ṣaqqâra to Dahshûr, 2nd ed., revised and augmented by Jaromír Málek, Oxford, Griffith Institute, 1981, p. 453.Exhibition HistoryToledo Museum of Art, The Egypt Experience: Secrets of the Tomb, October 29, 2010-January 8, 2012.Label TextThe Toledo Museum of Art reliefs 1959.39 and 1959.40 come from the tomb of Akhethotep, an official during Egypt's Fourth Dynasty. This tomb is a mastaba located in an Early Dynastic necropolis near Abusir, west of modern Saqqara, which was a primary burial site for Memphis, the capital of Egypt at the time. These two fragments come from the tomb's offering chapel. Other reliefs from the same tomb are in collections such as the Brooklyn Museum (57.178), the Metropolitan Museum of Art (58.44.2 and 58.123), Munich’s Staatliche Sammlung (ÄS 4854 and ÄS 4855), and two fragments that were once part of the Kofler-Truninger Collection. Artists carved these limestone tomb reliefs in the enduring style of art created around 3000 BCE for members of the royal family and officials. The name and important office of the deceased are clearly stated in hieroglyphs. He is Akehthotep, “Inspector of the Harem of the Great House and Overseer of the Royal Stables.” He served Pharaoh Sneferu, who built three major pyramids and was the father of Khufu, who built the Great Pyramid at Giza. In both relief carvings Akhethotep is shown perpetually youthful, with profile head and frontal eye, profile torso and frontal shoulders, and feet seen from the instep. On the figure facing right it is clear that his staff is held in the left hand and his scepter in the right. For the figure facing left, however, it was important to show Akhethotep grasping his scepter in his right hand, and the staff with his left, so the hands have been reversed. The need to convey proper symbolic information overrode any confusion caused by the unnatural anatomy.