Tomb Relief of the Chief Physician Amenhotep and Family (c. 1279–1257 BCE): Art, History and Details

Tomb Relief of the Chief Physician Amenhotep and Family (c. 1279–1257 BCE) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

Ancient Egyptian medicine was held in high esteem, and doctors made a good living. In this scene, the chief physician Amenhotep leads his family in prayer. Arms uplifted in worship, they all wear intricately styled wigs and elaborately layered, pleated, billowing linen garments that were the height of fashion during the long and prosperous reign of Ramesses II. The faces have features typical of this period, including a long-nosed profile with small mouths and creases on the neck. Only the upper eyelids were modeled in relief; other details of the eyes were added in black and white paint. Amenhotep’s tomb chapel at Asyut was excavated in 1913–14 by the Egyptian Antiquities Service. Its reliefs are now divided among four cities. The right side of the wall directly adjoining the Cleveland relief is in Zurich, Switzerland. The other sections are in the Toledo Museum of Art and the Egyptian Museum, Berlin, Germany.

Object facts

• Title: Tomb Relief of the Chief Physician Amenhotep and Family
• Date: c. 1279–1257 BCE
• Culture: Egypt, Asyut, New Kingdom, (1540–1069 BCE), Dynasty 19, reign of Ramesses II (1279–1213 BCE)
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: limestone with traces of paint
• Dimensions: Overall: 128 x 119.5 cm (50 3/8 x 47 1/16 in.)
• Collection: Egypt - New Kingdom
• Department: Egyptian and Ancient Near Eastern Art
• Accession number: 1963.100

Collection credit

Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Cleveland Museum of Art, and Martha L. Carter. Egyptian Art, the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, Ohio: The Museum, 1963.
• 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.

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.