id: 136667
accession number: 1961.205
share license status: CC0
url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1961.205
updated: 2021-03-28 09:07:24.488000
Nome Gods Bearing Offerings, c. 1391-1353 BC. Egypt, New Kingdom, Dynasty 18 (1540-1296), reign of Amenhotep III. Painted limestone; overall: 66 x 133 cm (26 x 52 3/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, John L. Severance Fund 1961.205
title: Nome Gods Bearing Offerings
title in original language:
series:
series in original language:
creation date: c. 1391-1353 BC
creation date earliest: 1391
creation date latest: 1353
current location: 107 Egyptian
creditline: John L. Severance Fund
copyright:
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culture: Egypt, New Kingdom, Dynasty 18 (1540-1296), reign of Amenhotep III
technique: painted limestone
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: 66 x 133 cm (26 x 52 3/8 in.)
state of the work:
edition of the work:
support materials:
inscriptions:
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CURRENT EXHIBITIONS
title: Year in Review (1961)
opening date: 1961-11-01T04:00:00
Year in Review (1961). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 1-26, 1961).
title: Egypt's Dazzling Sun: Amenhotep III and His World
opening date: 1992-07-01T04:00:00
Egypt's Dazzling Sun: Amenhotep III and His World. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 1-September 27, 1992); Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, TX (October 24, 1992-January 31, 1993); Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, 75008 Paris, France (March 2-May 31, 1993).
title: Pharaohs: Treasures of Egyptian Art from the Louvre
opening date: 1996-02-11T05:00:00
Pharaohs: Treasures of Egyptian Art from the Louvre. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 11-April 14, 1996).
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LEGACY EXHIBITIONS
* The Year in Review for 1976, Cleveland Museum of Art (February 1 - March 6, 1977).
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PROVENANCE
Probably Kom el-Ahmar, ancient Hebenu.
date:
footnotes:
citations:
Mrs. Paul Mallon, Paris, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art
date: ?-1961
footnotes:
citations:
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
date: 1961-
footnotes:
citations:
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fun fact:
Another block from the same temple wall was acquired 15 years later by the museum.
digital description:
These blocks from a temple wall show four figures identified as nomes, or provinces, of ancient Egypt. Carrying trays heaped with offerings and leading sacrificial animals, they personify the bounty of the land that they bring to the god who stood in the upper register, facing a figure of the king, Amenhotep III. These blocks may be from Amenhotep III's temple, dedicated to the god Horus.
wall description:
These blocks from a temple wall have preserved their original painted decoration to a remarkable degree. The four portly figures in the lower register bear emblems on their heads identifying them as nomes, or provinces, of ancient Egypt. Carrying trays heaped with offerings and leading sacrificial animals, they personify the bounty of the land. First (on the right) is the Oryx Nome, followed by the Dog Nome, the Falcon Nome, and the Double Scepter Nome. The face of each figure is a miniature portrait of Amenhotep III, and each recites a speech in the king's name. The first figure says, "King Nebmaatra [Amenhotep III] has come, bringing to you every good thing that is in this land, that you may give him all life, stability, dominion, and all health from you." The second, third, and fourth figures bring "all greens," "the produce of the Two Lands [Upper and Lower Egypt]," and "all offerings and provisions." The god to whom the nomes bring offerings stood in the fragmentary upper register, facing a standing figure of the king, Amenhotep III. The pair of legs on the right belonged to the god; the single foot on the left belonged to the king. The god holds a scepter, forked at the bottom, embellished with coils of rope (for eternity), tadpoles (for hundreds of thousands), and notched palm ribs (for years), the whole signifying "an eternity of hundreds of thousands of years." These blocks may be from Amenhotep III's temple at Kom el-Ahmar, ancient Hebenu, in Middle Egypt, dedicated to the god Horus. Hebenu was the capital of the Oryx Nome that leads the procession. Amenhotep III's temple was later dismantled, and its blocks were reused in the foundation of another structure, which would account for the excellent preservation of the paint.
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RELATED WORKS
id: 148798
Nome Gods Bearing Offerings, c. 1391-1353 BC. Egypt, New Kingdom, Dynasty 18 (1540-1296), reign of Amenhotep III. Painted limestone; overall: 66 cm (25 15/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, John L. Severance Fund 1976.51
relationship: originally part of
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CITATIONS
Cleveland Museum of Art, David Franklin, and C. Griffith Mann. Treasures from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2012.
page number: pp 22-23
url:
The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Bulletin 49, no. 6 (June 1962): color cover.
page number: Color Cover
url: https://www.jstor.org/stable/25151898
Carter, Martha L. Egyptian Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1963, 8. pl. 10.
page number: p. 8, pl. 10
url:
Lee, Sherman E., "The Art Museum and Antiquity." Apollo 77, no. 22 (December 1963): 438.
page number: p. 438
url:
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966.
page number: Reproduced: p. 3
url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1966/page/n27
Selected Works: The Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1967, pl. 3.
page number: pl. 3
url:
Cooney, John D. "Gods Bearing Gifts for the King." CMA Bulletin 54, no. 9 (November 1967): 279-289, fig. 1.
page number: p. 279-289, fig. 1
url: https://www.jstor.org/stable/25152178
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969.
page number: Reproduced: p. 3
url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1969/page/n25
Silver, Adele. Guide to the Galleries: The Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1971.
page number:
url:
Lee, Sherman E. "The Year in Review for 1976." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 64, no. 2 (June 1977): 39-78.
page number: p. 73, No. 5
url: https://www.jstor.org/stable/25159530
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978.
page number: Reproduced: p. 13
url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1978/page/n33
Kozloff, Arielle. "Guessing the Unseen from the Seen." CMA Bulletin 66, no. 9 (December 1979): 338-342, fig. 13.
page number: p. 338-342, fig. 13
url: https://www.jstor.org/stable/25159651
Silver, Adele. Guide to the Galleries: The Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1971; 2nd ed., rev 1981, 10-11, fig 9.
page number: p. 10-11, fig. 9
url:
Kozloff, Arielle. An Introduction to the Art of Egypt in the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1983, 12.
page number: p. 12
url:
Kozloff, Arielle. "The Egyptian Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art." Newsletter of the American Research Center in Egypt 125, (Spring 1984): 9.
page number: p. 9
url:
Baines, John. Fecundicy Figures: Egyptian Personification and the Iconology of a Genre. Warminster: Aris and Phillips, and Chicago: Bolchazy-Carducci, 1985, 90, fig. 56.
page number: p. 90, fig. 56
url:
Johnson, W. Raymond, "Images of Amenhotep III in Thebes: Styles and Intentions." In The Art of Amenhotep III: Art Historical Analysis; Papers Presented at the International Symposium Held at the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio, 34. Lawrence Michael Berman, ed. Cleveland,OH: Cleveland Museum of Art in cooperation with Indiana University Press, 1990.
page number: p. 34
url:
Romano, James. "A Second Look at 'Images of Amenhotep III in Thebes: Styles and Intentions' by W. Raymond Johnson." In The Art of Amenhotep III: Art Historical Analysis; Papers Presented at the International Symposium Held at the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio, 52-53. Lawrence Michael Berman, ed. Cleveland,OH: Cleveland Museum of Art in cooperation with Indiana University Press, 1990.
page number: p. 52-53
url:
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1991.
page number: Reproduced: p. 4
url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1991/page/n20
Interpretations: Sixty-Five Works from the Cleveland Museum of Art, no.2 (1991).
page number:
url:
Kozloff, Arielle. "Egypt's Dazzling Sun: Amenhotep III and His World." Egyptian Archaeology 2 (1991): 22.
page number: p. 22, no. 4, pl. 2
url:
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Masterpieces from East and West. New York: Rizzoli International, 1992.
page number: p. 18
url:
Kozloff, Arielle and Betsy Bryan. "Egypt's Dazzling Sun: Amenhotep III and His World." Minerva 3, no.4 (July/August 1992): 27, fig. 4.
page number: p. 27, fig. 4
url:
Delange, E. "Egypt's Dazzling Sun, Amenhotep III and His World Cleveland." BSFE 125 (October 1992): 33, fig. 3.
page number: p. 33, fig. 3
url:
Delange, Elisabeth. "Introduction." Connaissance des Arts, special issue 36 (1993): 4, fig. 2.
page number: p. 4, fig. 2
url:
Yoyette, Jean. "Amenophis III: Soleil des souverains." Beaux-Arts Magazine, special issue (February 1993): 7.
page number: p. 7
url:
Bianchi, Robert Steven. "Amenophis III: Le pharaon soleil." Archeologia 288 (March 1993): 22.
page number: p. 22
url:
Kozloff, Arielle. "Revelations from Egypt's 'Dazzling Sun.'" Chronicle of Higher Education 39, no. 30 (March 11, 1993): B3.
page number: B3
url:
Siliotti, Alberto. Egypt: Splendours of an Ancient Civilization. London: Thames and Hudson, 1994.
page number: p. 54, fig. 54
url:
Wilkinson, Richard. Symbol and Magic in Egyptian Art. London: Thames and Hudson, 1994.
page number: p. 123
url:
Noblecourt, Christiane Desroches. Amours et fureurs de La Lointaine: Cles pours la comprehension de symboles egyptiens. Paris: Stock-Pernoud, 1995.
page number: pl. XVI
url:
Mysliwiec, Karol. "Egypt, Ancient: Pre-Amarna Reliefs." Dictionary of Art 9, (1996): 882, fig. 60.
page number: p. 882, fig. 60
url:
Berman, Lawrence. "Royal Allegory." CMA Members Magazine 36, no. 3 (March 1996): 9.
page number: p. 9
url:
Cleveland Museum of Art, Lawrence Michael Berman, and Kenneth J. Bohač. Catalogue of Egyptian Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1999.
page number: Reproduced: color p. 10; Mentioned: p. 11
url:
Berman, Lawrence M., and Kenneth J. Bohač. Catalogue of Egyptian Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1999
page number: Reproduced: p. 227-229, Color: p. 5; Mentioned: p. 227-231
url:
May, Sally Ruth, Jane Takac, and Barbara J. Bradley. Knockouts: A Pocket Guide. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2001.
page number: no. 6, p. 11 & 116
url:
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IMAGES
web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1961.205/1961.205_web.jpg
print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1961.205/1961.205_print.jpg
full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1961.205/1961.205_full.tif