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

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

Egyptian

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.

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

Culture: Ancient Egyptian
Title: 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.: 1427 BCE–1400 BCE
Medium: Ceramic and pigment
Inscriptions: Words spoken by Serket: “I place my arms on that which is in me, I protect the Imsety which is in me [of] the Overseer of the Builders of Amun, Amenhotep, revered by Imsety.”
Dimensions: a (jar): 31.7 × 19 × 18.4 cm (12 1/5 × 7 1/5 × 7 ¼ in.) b (lid): 12.7 × 13.3 × 14 cm (5 × 5 ¼ × 5 1/5 in.)
Credit Line: Gift of Henry H. Getty, Charles L. Hutchinson, and Norman W. Harris
Reference Number: 1892.36a-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. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/127885/manifest.json

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.
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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