Kohl Jar with Lid

Middle Kingdom-early New Kingdom, Dynasty 12-early Dynasty 18, about 1985-1479 BCE

Egyptian

This small container was designed to hold kohl, a cosmetic eye paint made of ground galena or malachite. Ancient Egyptian men and women wore kohl for its aesthetic appeal but also to dampen the harsh sunlight of North Africa and possibly even for medicinal purposes. Containers like this were buried with their owners for continued use in the afterlife.

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

Culture: Ancient Egyptian
Title: Kohl Jar with Lid
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.: c. 1985 BCE–1773 BCE
Medium: Travertine (Egyptian alabaster)
Dimensions: Lid On: 4.4 × 4 × 4.1 cm (1 3/4 × 1 9/16 × 1 5/8 in.)
Credit Line: Gift of Henry H. Getty and Charles L. Hutchinson
Reference Number: 1894.664a-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/136371/manifest.json

Thomas George Allen, A Handbook of the Egyptian Collection (Chicago: The Art Institute of Chicago, 1923), p. 94.
Emily Teeter, “Ancient Art at the Art Institute of Chicago,” in Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies 20, no. 1 (special issue, 1994): pp. 18, 19 (ill.), 20.

Art Institute of Chicago, Life and Afterlife in Ancient Egypt, Feb. 11, 2022 - present.

Reverend Chauncey Murch (1859-1907), Luxor, Egypt; sold to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1894; price reimbursed by Henry H. Getty and Charles L. Hutchinson, 1894.

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