Relief Depicting a God
Ptolemaic Period (332–30 BCE)
Medium
Limestone
Dimensions
29.5 × 25.4 × 2.5 cm (11 5/8 × 10 × 1 in.)
Classification
relief
Department
Arts of Africa
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
127867
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
One way Egyptian artists expressed the concept of immortality was by repeating artistic conventions that had been used for thousands of years. One of the oldest such traditions was the simplification of the human body, which was reduced to its fundamental, most recognizable shape. Here the face is in profile, but the eye and the chest are depicted frontally. While these formal conventions continued to be honored after the Greeks came to rule Egypt during the Ptolemaic period, the new kings also ...
About the Artist
Ancient Egyptian
Ancient Egyptian artists, a collective of highly skilled artisans spanning over three millennia from the Predynastic period (c. 6000–3150 BC) to the Roman era (30 BC–4th century AD), produced some of humanity's most enduring masterpieces. These anonymous craftsmen, often organized in state-sponsored workshops, lived in dedicated communities like Deir el-Medina near Luxor during the New Kingdom (c....