Brooklyn Museum: Egyptian, Classical, and Ancient Middle Eastern Art: Relief with Desert Animals

Relief with Desert Animals

This fragment—originally part of a large hunting scene—shows desert animals breeding in their wild habitat. To the right, a wild feline noses after his mate. At lower left, a male antelope, mounting his mate, rears his head into the row above. The four female legs and two male hind legs of two other antelopes are visible at the upper left. At the lower right, the hindquarters of an antelope giving birth and the emerging head of her calf are partly preserved. The bovine calf at center left completes this depiction of the cycle of life, which, by being represented in the tomb, achieved eternal significance for the Egyptians.

Medium: Limestone, painted
Place Excavated: Saqqara, Egypt
Dates: ca. 2472-2455 B.C.E.
Dynasty: middle V Dynasty
Period: Old Kingdom
Dimensions: 11 7/16 x 17 1/16 x 1 3/16 in. (29 x 43.3 x 3 cm)
Collections: Egyptian, Classical, and Ancient Middle Eastern Art
Museum Location: This item is on view in Egyptian Galleries, 3rd Floor
Accession Number: 64.147
Credit Line: Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund
Image: Overall, 64.147_SL1.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph