Plaque Depicting a Quail Chick

Ptolemaic Period (332–30 BCE)

Egyptian

Remarkable for its lifelike detail, this plaque depicts a fledgling quail, better known to literate Egyptians as the hieroglyph for the sound w. Plaques like this one that show animals, deities, and royalty were a relatively late addition to the ancient Egyptian artistic repertoire, first appearing around 664 BCE. Their function remains a mystery—they may have been used as sculptors’ models in the training of artists, dedicated in temples as gifts to the gods, or perhaps both.

Status: On View, Gallery 50
Department: Arts of Africa

Culture: Ancient Egyptian
Title: Plaque Depicting a Quail Chick
Place: Egypt (Object made in)
Date: 332 BCE–30 BCE
Medium: Limestone
Dimensions: 12 × 13.2 × 1.3 cm (4 3/4 × 5 1/4 × 1/2 in.)
Credit Line: Museum Purchase Fund
Reference Number: 1920.256
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Thomas George Allen, A Handbook of the Egyptian Collection (Chicago: The Art Institute of Chicago, 1923), pp. 44 (ill.), 46.
A Guide to the Oriental Institute Museum (Chicago: University of Chicago, 1982), pp. 20-21.
Rozenn Bailleul-LeSuer, ed., Between Heaven & Earth: Birds in Ancient Egypt. exh. cat. (Chicago: The Oriental Institute, 2012), cat. no. 19.
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. 28.
Emily Teeter, “Collecting for Chicago: James Henry Breasted and the Egyptian Collections,” in the Oriental Institute News and Notes, Members’ Magazine, issue 226 (Summer 2015), p. 11 (ill.).

Art Institute of Chicago, Ancient Art Galleries, Rubloff 154A, April 20, 1994 - February 6, 2012.
Oriental Institute, Between Heaven & Earth: Birds in Ancient Egypt, October 16, 2012 - July 28, 2013.
Art Institute of Chicago, Life and Afterlife in Ancient Egypt, Feb. 11, 2022 - present.

Maurice Nahman (1868-1948), Cairo; sold to the Art Institute of Chicago through James Henry Breasted as agent, 1919.

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