Canopic Jar of the Overseer of the Builders of Amun, Amenhotep

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Ancient and Byzantine Art

New Kingdom, Dynasty 18, reign of Amenhotep II (about 1427–1400 BC)

Egyptian

During the mummification process, the liver, lungs, stomach, and intestines were removed from the body, separately mummified, and stored in the tomb in four vessels, called Canopic jars. Each organ was placed under the protection of a deity whose head appears on the stopper of each jar.

Currently Off View: Ancient and Byzantine Art

Artist: Ancient Egyptian
Title: Canopic Jar of the Overseer of the Builders of Amun, Amenhotep
Origin: Egypt
Date: 1427 BC–1400 BC
Medium: Terra-cotta and pigment
Inscriptions: Words spoken by Isis: “I place my arms on that which is in me, I protect the Duamutef which is in me [of] the Overseer of the Builders of Amun, Amenhotep, revered by Duamutef.”
Dimensions: a (jar): 30.4 × 19 × 19 cm (12 × 7 1/5 × 7 1/5 in.) b (lid): 13.3 × 13.3 × 13.3 cm (5 1/4 × 5 1/4 × 5 1/4 in.)
Credit Line: Gift of Henry H. Getty, Charles L. Hutchinson, and Norman W. Harris
Reference Number: 1892.38a-b

Thomas George Allen, A Handbook of the Egyptian Collection (Art Institute of Chicago/University of Chicago Press, 1923), p. 19 (ill.), 20, 64, 156 n.
Nicholas Reeves, Egyptian Art at Eton College: Selections from the Myers Museum, exh. cat. (Metropolitan Museum of Art/Eton College, 1999), p. 24 [as Oriental Institute Museum, Chicago 92.36-39].
Karen B. Alexander, "From Plaster to Stone: Ancient Art at the Art Institute of Chicago," in Recasting the Past: Collecting and Presenting Antiquities at the Art Institute of Chicago, by Karen Manchester (Art Institute of Chicago/Yale University Press, 2012), p. 21, fig. 5.
Nicholas Reeves, “Amenhotep, Overseer of the Builders of Amun: An Eighteenth-Dynasty Burial Reassembled,” Metropolitan Museum Journal 48, 1 (2013), p. 14, fig. 12.

The Art Institute of Chicago, Grave Goods from Ancient Cultures, Gallery 141, November 9, 1991 - May 17, 1992.
The Art Institute of Chicago, Ancient Art Galleries, Gallery 154A, April 20, 1994 - February 6, 2012.
The Art Institute of Chicago, When the Greeks Ruled: Egypt After Alexander the Great, October 31, 2013 - July 27, 2014.

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