This piece was reused several times. Over the initial design of a lion, an artist drew a grid in order to copy the image to another surface. At a later date, the plaque was used as a note pad at which time the ink inscription was added. The notation is a list of names, perhaps witnesses to a transaction.
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.
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.
Thomas George Allen, A Handbook of the Egyptian Collection (Chicago: The Art Institute of Chicago, 1923), 45-46 (ill.).
Art Institute of Chicago, A Brief Illustrated Guide to the Collections (Art Institute of Chicago, 1935), 9 (ill.).
Nadja Samir Tomoum, The Sculptors’ Models of the Late and Ptolemaic Periods: A Study of the Type and Function of a Group of Ancient Egyptian Artefacts, trans. Brenda Siller (National Center for Documentation of Cultural and Natural Heritage; Supreme Council of Antiquities, Egypt, 2005), 95-96.
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), 28.
Roberta Casagrande-Kim, ed., When the Greeks Ruled Egypt: From Alexander the Great to Cleopatra, exh. cat. (Institute for the Study of the Ancient World at New York University/Princeton University Press, 2014), 90, cat. 11.
S. P. Vleeming, Demotic Graffiti and Other Short Texts Gathered from Many Publications (Short Texts III 1201-2350), Studia Demotica 12 (Leuven: Peeters, 2015), 383, no. 2097.
University of Minnesota Gallery, Space in Sculpture, November 15-December 31, 1948.
Art Institute of Chicago, Ancient Art Galleries, Gallery 154A, April 20, 1994 - February 6, 2012.
Art Institute of Chicago, When the Greeks Ruled: Egypt After Alexander the Great, October 31, 2013 - July 27, 2014; traveled to New York, NY, the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, October 8, 2014 - January 4, 2015.
Art Institute of Chicago, Life and Afterlife in Ancient Egypt, Feb. 11, 2022 - present.
Nicolas George Tano (1866-1924), Cairo; sold to the Art Institute of Chicago through James Henry Breasted as agent, 1919.
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.
