Lot 10
10
AN EGYPTIAN LIMESTONE RELIEF FRAGMENT WITH BUTCHERY SCENE
AN EGYPTIAN LIMESTONE RELIEF FRAGMENT WITH BUTCHERY SCENE
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These lots have been imported from outside the EU … Read more PROPERTY FROM THE COLLECTION OF PROF. DR. ROLAND BAY, SWITZERLAND
AN EGYPTIAN POLYCHROME LIMESTONE RELIEF OF AN OFFICIAL

FIRST INTERMEDIATE PERIOD, CIRCA 2181-2025 B.C.

Details
AN EGYPTIAN POLYCHROME LIMESTONE RELIEF OF AN OFFICIAL
FIRST INTERMEDIATE PERIOD, CIRCA 2181-2025 B.C.
17 in. (43.2 cm.) wide; 16 in. (41 cm.) high
Provenance
Prof. Dr. Roland Bay (1909-1992), Orselina, acquired in the 1950s; thence by descent to current owner
Literature
S. Hermann, Le don du Nil: Art égyptien dans les collections suisses, Basel, 1978, pp. 39-40, no. 128.
Exhibited
Le don du Nil, Art égyptien dans les collections suisses, Genève, Basel, Bern, Zürich, Luzern, 1978.
Special notice
These lots have been imported from outside the EU or, if the UK has withdrawn from the EU without an agreed transition deal, from outside of the UK for sale and placed under the Temporary Admission regime. Import VAT is payable at 5% on the hammer price. VAT at 20% will be added to the buyer’s premium but will not be shown separately on our invoice.

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Lot Essay

This relief depicts the deceased walking to the right, his wife of diminutive proportions, walking by his side, her arm wrapped around his waist, named in the inscription above as Meritites. In front of them is an offering table laden with loaves of bread and various meats with the horizontal inscription above reading "a thousand bread, beer, poultry, livestock and game" and "prayer to a offering of Osiris, Lord of Busiris and Khentiamentiu, Lord of Abydos may they give offerings to the price, the chancellor of the King of Lower Egypt and the unique companion". The two vertical lines of hieroglyphs to the side read "provided by the great god, master of heaven, the justified....[name missing]...may offerings be made to him on the feast of fire, the feast of Thoth, the first day of the year and the feast of the new year".
In style and paleography, this stela reflects increased regionalization of art workshops following the collapse of the Old Kingdom.  The facial features as well as the open arrangement of the food items floating above the offering table have close parallels in stelae from Upper Egyptian sites such as Dendera and Naga el-Deir during the First Intermediate Period.

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