Hunting Scene, unknown maker from Egypt

Episode 13. I’m David Cateforis with another art minute from the Spencer Museum of Art. One of the museum’s oldest objects is a fragment of an ancient Egyptian relief carving, dating to around 2400 BCE. It originally graced the wall of a tomb. The ancient Egyptians believed that the human spirit lived on after death, and the tombs of the wealthy were decorated with scenes of daily activities for the deceased to enjoy in the afterlife. The Spencer relief depicts the procurement of food, meant to nourish the tomb owner. In the two upper registers are scenes of fowling, with a kneeling man holding a goose by the neck, and a standing man holding several geese by their wings. In the register below are men on rafts, spear fishing. The figures in the relief are depicted in the twisted pose the Egyptians used to present each part of the body from the most characteristic angle, with heads in profile but frontal eyes, frontal shoulders, but hips, legs, and feet in profile. The relief looks different today than it did originally, because it would have been covered with a coat of plaster and then painted. But even in its stripped and fragmentary state, it remains a captivating work of art that provides a rare glimpse into daily life in ancient Egypt. From the Spencer Museum of Art, I’m David Cateforis.