Canopic Jar of the Overseer of the Builders of Amun, Amenhotep
Date:
New Kingdom, Dynasty 18, reign of Amenhotep II (about 1427–1400 BCE)
Artist:
Egyptian
About this artwork
One of a set of four jars that belonged to Amenhotep, who oversaw architectural projects in the temple of Amun at Karnak (in present-day Luxor). Now empty, the jars once held Amenhotep’s liver, lungs, intestines, and stomach, which were removed during the mummification process. Each jar has a hand-sculpted stopper that may represent its owner or one of the four sons of Horus, a set of gods associated with these vital organs. An inscription in hieroglyphs on each container promises divine protection over its contents by a different goddess: Selket, Neith, Nephthys, or Isis.
Canopic Jar of the Overseer of the Builders of Amun, Amenhotep
Place
Egypt (Object made in)
Date
Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.
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
IIIF Manifest
The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.
Thomas George Allen, A Handbook of the Egyptian Collection (Chicago: The Art Institute of Chicago, 1923), p. 19 (ill.), 20, 64, 156.
Nicholas Reeves, Egyptian Art at Eton College: Selections from the Myers Museum, exh. cat. (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art; Windsor: 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 Karen Manchester, Recasting the Past: Collecting and Presenting Antiquities at the Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago; New Haven: Yale University Press, 2012), p. 21, fig. 5.
Nicholas Reeves, “Amenhotep, Overseer of the Builders of Amun: An Eighteenth-Dynasty Burial Reassembled,” in the Metropolitan Museum Journal 48, 1 (2013), p. 14, fig. 12.
Giovanni Verri and Hariclia Brecoulaki, “From the Face and Expression of the Eyes: Multidisciplinary Studies of Pigments in Ancient Greek and Roman Painted Surfaces,” TECHNAI: An International Journal for Ancient Science and Technology, Fabrizio Serra editore (Pisa/Roma, Anno 14, 2023), p. 58, fig. 1.
Art Institute of Chicago, Grave Goods from Ancient Cultures, Gallery 141, November 9, 1991 - May 17, 1992.
Art Institute of Chicago, Ancient Art Galleries, Gallery 154A, April 20, 1994 - February 6, 2012.
Art Institute of Chicago, When the Greeks Ruled: Egypt After Alexander the Great, October 31, 2013 - July 27, 2014.
Art Institute of Chicago, Life and Afterlife in Ancient Egypt, Feb. 11, 2022 - present.
The Art Institute of Chicago, acquired in Egypt, 1892; price reimbursed by Henry H. Getty and Charles L. Hutchinson, 1892.
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