Chair or Bed Leg with the God Bes
Unknown Artist
1540–1296 BCE
Medium
tamarisk
Dimensions
44.7 × 5.9 cm
Classification
Furniture and woodwork
Department
Egyptian and Ancient Near Eastern Art
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Guerdon S. Holden Memorial Fund
Accession Number
1982.42
About this artwork
The genial god Bes appears here in the form of a furniture leg. With hands on his pot belly and wearing a short kilt with a long apron, he stands bowlegged on a truncated cone base. He has long, upward sweeping, diagonal eyebrows, large eyes, full cheeks, and rounded ears, and he wears a full beard and mustache. His body is soft and unmuscular. As a household god, Bes figured prominently as a decorative motif both in royal and private dwellings.