Torso of Amenpayom (probably 200–100 BCE): Art, History and Details

Torso of Amenpayom (probably 200–100 BCE) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

This magnificent life-sized torso is inscribed for Amenpayom, the great army general of the district of Mendes in the Nile Delta. By the end of the Ptolemaic dynasty (305-30 BC) when this statue was made, the Egyptians could draw on 3,000 years of expertise carving hard stone. Enough remains to show that Amenpayom was represented in the traditional pose for men: left leg striding forward, arms at his sides, and supported by a back pillar. The subtle, masterful treatment of the undulating musculature and meticulous, flawless polish are hallmarks of this period, when Egyptian artists reveled in the natural beauty of the human form.

Object facts

• Title: Torso of Amenpayom
• Date: probably 200–100 BCE
• Culture: Egypt, Greco-Roman period (332 BCE–395 CE), Ptolemaic dynasty (305–30 BCE)
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: granodiorite
• Dimensions: Overall: 96.4 x 32.3 x 28.6 cm (37 15/16 x 12 11/16 x 11 1/4 in.)
• Collection: Egypt - Ptolemaic Dynasty
• Department: Egyptian and Ancient Near Eastern Art
• Accession number: 1948.141

A detail from the museum

On the back Amenpayom is depicted again worshiping the gods of Mendes, Harpocrates, Banebjedet, and Hatmehit.

Collection credit

Gift of the Hanna Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Wunderlich, Silvia A. "Diorite Torso of a General." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 36, no. 6 (1949)
• Ranke, Hermann. "The Statue of a Ptolemaic ΣΤΡΑΤΗΓΟΣ of the Mendesian Nome in the Cleveland Museum of Art." Journal of the American Oriental Society 73, no. 4 (1953).
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958.

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.