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Relief Depicting a God

A work made of limestone.
CC0 Public Domain Designation

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  • A work made of limestone.

Date:

Ptolemaic Period (332–30 BCE)

Artist:

Egyptian

About this artwork

One way Egyptian artists expressed the concept of immortality was by repeating artistic conventions that had been used for thousands of years. One of the oldest such traditions was the simplification of the human body, which was reduced to its fundamental, most recognizable shape. Here the face is in profile, but the eye and the chest are depicted frontally. While these formal conventions continued to be honored after the Greeks came to rule Egypt during the Ptolemaic period, the new kings also imposed their own taste. The soft flesh of the face and the small, rounded nose are drawn from naturalistic Greek sculpture and are reminiscent of artworks seen at the court of the Ptolemies in the new capital of Alexandria.

Status

Currently Off View

Department

Arts of Africa

Culture

Ancient Egyptian

Title

Relief Depicting a God

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.

332 BCE–30 BCE

Medium

Limestone

Dimensions

29.5 × 25.4 × 2.5 cm (11 5/8 × 10 × 1 in.)

Credit Line

Museum Purchase Fund

Reference Number

1920.257

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.

Learn more.

https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/127867/manifest.json

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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