Trial Piece Worked on Both Sides
Unknown Artist
c. 1391–1353 BCE
Medium
limestone
Dimensions
34.4 × 24 × 7 cm
Classification
Sculpture
Department
Egyptian and Ancient Near Eastern Art
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Gift of the John Huntington Art and Polytechnic Trust
Accession Number
1920.1975.b
About this artwork
This carved flake of limestone provides a fascinating glimpse of the ancient artist at work. The rather routine, basic subjects of this side show a far lower level of accomplishment than the other. The sole details of any skill are the incomplete head of the god Bes at the bottom center and the human ear at the left edge. The simple neb-signs (baskets) are poorly executed, and the drawing of the hand is embarrassingly bad. At the lower right is a thickly banded human eye. Above that is the fair ...