Collection
/
Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art

Donation Stela

year 22 of Sheshenq III, ca. 804 B.C.E.

1 of 12

Object Label

A self-taught artist, Warren Wheelock embraced a broad sculptural vocabulary, creating traditional portraits of historical figures, as well as more abstracted shapes with angular lines and curved recesses such as the one seen here. Wheelock’s sculptural practice emerged partly out of an interest in whittling, or the carving of a handheld piece of wood with precise, measured cuts of a knife. Abstraction #2 achieves on a larger scale the delicate lines and incisions central to the craft of whittling.

Caption

Donation Stela, year 22 of Sheshenq III, ca. 804 B.C.E.. Limestone, 20 1/2 x 12 3/4 x 2 1/2 in., 41 lb. (52.1 x 32.4 x 6.4 cm, 18.6kg). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 67.118. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 67.118_PS1.jpg)

Title

Donation Stela

Date

year 22 of Sheshenq III, ca. 804 B.C.E.

Dynasty

Dynasty 22

Period

Third Intermediate Period

Geography

Place found: Mendes, Egypt

Medium

Limestone

Classification

Sculpture

Dimensions

20 1/2 x 12 3/4 x 2 1/2 in., 41 lb. (52.1 x 32.4 x 6.4 cm, 18.6kg)

Credit Line

Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund

Accession Number

67.118

Rights

Creative Commons-BY

You may download and use Brooklyn Museum images of this three-dimensional work in accordance with a Creative Commons license. Fair use, as understood under the United States Copyright Act, may also apply. Please include caption information from this page and credit the Brooklyn Museum. If you need a high resolution file, please fill out our online application form (charges apply). For further information about copyright, we recommend resources at the United States Library of Congress, Cornell University, Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums, and Copyright Watch. For more information about the Museum's rights project, including how rights types are assigned, please see our blog posts on copyright. If you have any information regarding this work and rights to it, please contact copyright@brooklynmuseum.org.

Frequent Art Questions

  • What's this?

    You're looking at "Donation Stela with a Curse" from the Third Intermediate Period. A stela (stelae, plural) is just a standing slab, usually with carved relief or inscriptions on it. In the Egyptian culture, as in most cultures, stelae usually had commemorative or funerary purposes.
    As you may have read on the label it is a representation of the Libyan chieftain Hornakht accompanied by the flute player Ankh-hor-pa-khered, making donation of a field of 10 acres to Harpocrates, a representation of Horus as a child.

  • What is this?

    This stela is a donation from a Libyan chieftain named Hornakht to the god Horus in the form of a child.
    Hornakht is shown second from the right presenting a tray with offerings of maat feathers, symbols of truth, justice, and balance. Behind him is a flute player named Ankh-hor-pa-khered.
    The child depicted is Horus (also known as Harpocrates when he is a child). Behind him is his father, Osiris, followed by two more deities, Ba-nebdjedet, and Hatmehyt.

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