Statue of Wesirnakht

Public Domain

Arts of Africa

Probably Macedonian Dynasty (332–305 BCE)

Egyptian; possibly Athribis or Buto, Egypt

This statue demonstrates the permanence of Egyptian artistic styles. The man’s kilt, his broad collar, and even the style of his wig deliberately copy earlier styles, which harken back more than 2000 years. Wesirnakht is portrayed kneeling before a god with his arms on his thighs in a pose of reverence.

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Arts of Africa

Culture: Ancient Egyptian
Title: Statue of Wesirnakht
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.: Made 332 BCE–310 BCE
Medium: Granite
Inscriptions: On back pillar: “The one revered by Osiris Resy-Wedja in Buto, the Foremost of Pe, Great One of the Double Uraeus Who is in the Sky, Priest of Horus Who-is-on-His-Papyrus, Wesirnakht, son of the Foremost One of Pe, the One who Recovers the Five [?], Horhotep, born of the Lady of the House Tadiese”
Dimensions: 16.5 × 6.6 × 8.5 cm (6 1/4 × 2 5/8 × 3 3/8 in.)
Credit Line: W. Moses Willner Fund
Reference Number: 1910.243
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/64354/manifest.json

Art Institute of Chicago, Thirty-Second Annual Report: June 1, 1910–June 1, 1911 (Art Institute of Chicago, 1911), 19, 62.
Thomas George Allen, A Handbook of the Egyptian Collection (Chicago: The Art Institute of Chicago, 1923), 58, 59 (ill.).
Bernard V. Bothmer, Herman De Meulenaere, and Hans Wolfgang Müller, comps., Egyptian Sculpture of the Late Period, 700 B.C. to A.D. 100, exh. cat. (Brooklyn, NY: Brooklyn Museum, 1960), 114–16, cat. 91, pl. 85, figs. 226–27.
Edna R. Russmann, “The Statue of Amenemope-em-hat,” Metropolitan Museum Journal 8 (1973): 45, fig. 8.
Pascal Vernus, Athribis: Textes et documents relatifs à la géographie, aux cultes, et à l’histoire d’une ville du Delta égyptien à l’époque pharaonique (Institut français d’archéologie orientale du Caire, 1978), 191-92, no. 158 (as Oriental Institute 10243).
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), 38.

The Art Institute of Chicago, acquired in 1910.

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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.

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Department

Culture

Title

Place

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.

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Inscriptions

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Reference Number

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.

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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.