id:			94122
accession number:	1914.669
share license status:	CC0
url:			https://clevelandart.org/art/1914.669
updated:		2020-05-28 09:00:08.984000

Stele of the High Priest of Ptah, Shedsunefertem, 945-924 BC. Egypt, New Kingdom, Dynasty 22, reign of Shosheng I, 945-924 BC. Limestone, originally painted and gilded; overall: 86.8 x 78.5 cm (34 3/16 x 30 7/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of the John Huntington Art and Polytechnic Trust 1914.669

title:				Stele of the High Priest of Ptah, Shedsunefertem
title in original language:	
series:				
series in original language:	
creation date:			945-924 BC
creation date earliest:		945
creation date latest:		924
current location:		107 Egyptian
creditline:			Gift of the John Huntington Art and Polytechnic Trust
copyright:			

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culture:	Egypt, New Kingdom, Dynasty 22, reign of Shosheng I, 945-924 BC
technique:	limestone, originally painted and gilded
department:	Egyptian and Ancient Near Eastern Art
collection:	Egypt - New Kingdom
type:		Sculpture
find spot:	
catalogue raisonne: 

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CREATORS

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measurements: Overall: 86.8 x 78.5 cm (34 3/16 x 30 7/8 in.)
state of the work:	
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support materials:


inscriptions:

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CURRENT EXHIBITIONS

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LEGACY EXHIBITIONS

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PROVENANCE

	Purchased from Khawam Brothers, Cairo, by Lucy Olcott Perkins through Henry W. Kent, April 23, 1913, with 1914.662, 1914.542, and 1914.663
	date: 
	footnotes: 	
	citations: 	


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fun fact: 


digital description: 


wall description: 
This stele of Shedsunefertem, the High Priest of Ptah, is rich in religious symbolism. In the center of the top register is a disk and crescent, originally gilded. At either side a baboon raises its arms in adoration. The Egyptians believed that the jabbering of the baboons at dawn was a hymn of praise to the sun god Ra in a secret language only the king understood. It begins, "Praising Ra when he shines on the horizon." Directly below in the middle register a child god is seated on a lotus flower. In Egyptian mythology the sun arose out of the primeval waters at the dawn of creation in a lotus flower. Winged figures of Maat, goddess of Truth, stand protectively at either side. The damaged figure of the high priest himself, wearing the panther skin and jackal-collar of his office, appears at the far right, worshipping the god Ptah, whose consort, the lioness-headed goddess Sekhmet, appears on the far left. The figures in the bottom register are colleagues who appear here as dependents under the powerful high priest's protection.
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RELATED WORKS

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CITATIONS

	Williams, Caroline Ransom. "Stela of a High-Priest of Memphis." <em>The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art</em> 5, no. 8/9 (1918): 67-69.
	page number: 	Reproduced: Front Matter; Mentioned: pp. 67-69
	url:		http://www.jstor.org/stable/25136216

	Berman, Lawrence M., and Kenneth J. Bohač.<em> Catalogue of Egyptian Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art.</em> Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1999
	page number: 	Reproduced: p. 258; Mentioned: p. 258-260
	url:		

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IMAGES

web:	https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1914.669/1914.669_web.jpg
print:	https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1914.669/1914.669_print.jpg
full:	https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1914.669/1914.669_full.tif