Temple Relief of a Deity (360–246 BCE): Art, History and Details

Temple Relief of a Deity (360–246 BCE) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

The almond-shaped eye, snub nose, full cheeks, smiling mouth, and ball.shaped chin are characteristic of Dynasty 30 and the early Ptolemaic Dynasty, when a bolder, fleshier, more three-dimensional style of modeling was introduced. A favorite form of temple decoration during this period was a row of seated deities. This figure was the last in a row of gods facing right, for directly behind him is a dividing line and the slight remains of the vulture headdress, wig, and shoulder of a seated goddess, evidently the last in a row facing the opposite direction. At either end of the complete scene was probably a standing figure of the king presenting offerings.

Object facts

• Title: Temple Relief of a Deity
• Date: 360–246 BCE
• Culture: Egypt, Late period (715–332 BCE), Dynasty 30–Greco-Roman period (332 BCE–395 CE), Ptolemaic dynasty (305–30 BCE)
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: limestone
• Dimensions: Overall: 47.3 x 41 cm (18 5/8 x 16 1/8 in.)
• Collection: Egypt - Greco-Roman
• Department: Egyptian and Ancient Near Eastern Art
• Accession number: 1972.45

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Lee, Sherman E. “The Year in Review for 1972.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 60, no. 3 (March 1973): 63–115.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1991.
• Berman, Lawrence M., and Kenneth J. Bohač. Catalogue of Egyptian Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1999

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.