SculptureEgyptian3rd millennium BCE

Relief fragment from the tomb of Niankhnesut: Man holding a cow by a rope

2323-2150 BCE

Description

Carved in shallow raised relief and originally painted (with some color still visible), this rectangular fragment of a wall relief depicts a male herdsman, at right, who stands in front of a cow. The man is nude except for an abbreviated lioncloth. He holds a rope, by which the cow is harnessed at its nose and knotted with a loop around its front left hoof. He grasps the rope in his right hand and appears to pull it taunt behind his back and over his left shoulder with his left hand; the rope disappears behind the cow. Both the man and the cow stride toward the left, each with their right legs forward: the man faces to the left and the cow turns its head back, to the right, toward the man. An inscription in hieroglyphs is present at upper center. Above, the relief fragment terminates at a raised horizontal line, marking the separation of horizontal registers.

Classification

Sculpture

Technique

Carved

Medium

limestone, traces of paint

Culture

Egyptian

Period

Old Kingdom, Dynasty 6

Century

3rd millennium BCE

Division

Asian and Mediterranean Art

Department

Department of Ancient and Byzantine Art & Numismatics

Dimensions

35.7 x 39 cm (14 1/16 x 15 3/8 in.)

Provenance

Tomb of Niankhnesut, west of Step Pyramid, Saqqara, Egypt. [Jacob Hirsch, by 1929-1930], sold; through [Harold W. Parsons, New York, NY, February 14, 1930]; to Grenville L. Winthrop, (1930-1934), gift; to Fogg Art Museum, 1934.