Relief of Nyankhnesut Seated (c. 2311–2281 BCE): Art, History and Details

Relief of Nyankhnesut Seated (c. 2311–2281 BCE) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Nyankhnesut was a high official who lived during Dynasty 6 (2311-2281 BC). Reliefs from his tomb appeared on the art market in the early 20th century and are now dispersed in 15 museums and several private collections worldwide. Although the style of the carving indicates that the reliefs came from Saqqara, the tomb’s exact location in that great necropolis was not revealed until 2000 during excavations by the Egyptian government. The scenes center on food production and the provisioning of the tomb. As the tomb owner looks on, men bring in trays bearing bread and baskets of fruit. Others bring live poultry or lead in animals, both wild (antelope) and domesticated (oxen) for sacrifice. The largest, most important relief depicts agricultural scenes. The farmer’s activities are labeled: "sowing" and "plowing" in the upper register, "pulling flax" below. In the center, a man plays the flute to entertain the harvesters. Directly below him, a man stretches out his arms, holding a sickle and an ear of grain, exclaiming, "What a beautiful day." Detailed and lively scenes such as these magically ensured an everlasting supply of food for the deceased.

Object facts

• Title: Relief of Nyankhnesut Seated
• Date: c. 2311–2281 BCE
• Culture: Egypt, Saqqara, Old Kingdom (2647–2124 BCE), Dynasty 6
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: painted limestone
• Dimensions: Overall: 98.7 x 80.6 cm (38 7/8 x 31 3/4 in.)
• Collection: Egypt - Old Kingdom
• Department: Egyptian and Ancient Near Eastern Art
• Accession number: 1930.735

Collection credit

Gift of the John Huntington Art and Polytechnic Trust

Further reading listed by the museum

• "Old Kingdom Reliefs of Ancient Egypt." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 17, no. 10. (December 1930): 187-190
• Milliken, William. "Silver Jubilee Exhibition." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 28, no.6 (June 1941): 88-108
• Cleveland Museum of Art, and Martha L. Carter. Egyptian Art, the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, Ohio: The Museum, 1963.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.