Stele of Itetioqer and Family (c. 2123–2040 BCE): Art, History and Details

Stele of Itetioqer and Family (c. 2123–2040 BCE) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

The huge eyes, spindly limbs, and awkwardly laid out inscriptions are typical of the period after the collapse of the Old Kingdom, when there was no central government. Court sponsorship of the arts declined drastically during this time, and art in the provinces followed its own course. A certain folksy charm--naive and utterly unpretentious--compensates for the lack of sophistication. The two women standing behind the seated man and his wife are probably their daughters. The man’s skin is painted red, the women’s yellow, as was the tradition in Egypt. The inscription is a standard formula for funerary offerings on behalf of Itetioqer.

Object facts

• Title: Stele of Itetioqer and Family
• Date: c. 2123–2040 BCE
• Culture: Egypt, Southern Upper Egypt, Middle Kingdom (2040–1648 BCE), Dynasty 11
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: painted limestone
• Dimensions: Overall: 24.5 x 51.8 cm (9 5/8 x 20 3/8 in.)
• Collection: Egypt - Old Kingdom
• Department: Egyptian and Ancient Near Eastern Art
• Accession number: 1914.543

Collection credit

Gift of the John Huntington Art and Polytechnic Trust

Further reading listed by the museum

• The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978.

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.