Statue Group of Nen-kheft-ka and His Wife, Nefer-shemes
(Ancient Egypt and Nubia )
Found in a rock-cut tomb at Deshasheh, located about seventy miles to the south of modern Cairo, this pair statue of the mayor Nen-kheft-ka and his wife Nefer-shemes exemplifies in the pose and relative scale of its subjects the standard Egyptian artistic conventions for the representation of men and women. Nen-kheft-ka strides forward with his left foot and holds his arms closely at his sides, while his wife is depicted on a smaller scale and stands with her feet together. Each statue was carved separately and altered prior to burial to fit into a shared base.
Inscription
Provenance
Provenance (from the French provenir, 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody, or location of a historical object.
[Excavated by Sir Flinders Petrie, Deshasheh, Egypt, 1897]; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, October 1897, by gift [of the Egypt Exploration Fund, no. 97.1092]; Walters Art Museum, 1973, by exchange.
Exhibitions
1998-2001 | Highlights from the Collection. The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. |
Conservation
Date | Description | Narrative |
---|---|---|
Treatment | technical study; stabilized | |
6/8/1973 | Treatment | reconstructed; loss compensation |
6/18/1997 | Examination | examined for condition |
6/23/1997 | Treatment | technical study; stabilized |
8/6/1998 | Examination | survey |
Measurements
21 7/16 x 12 3/16 x 8 3/4 in. (54.5 x 31 x 22.3 cm)
Credit Line
Museum acquisition by exchange with Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1973
Location in Museum
Accession Number
In libraries, galleries, museums, and archives, an accession number is a unique identifier assigned to each object in the collection.
In libraries, galleries, museums, and archives, an accession number is a unique identifier assigned to each object in the collection.
22.425