<em>Stela of the Lady of the House, Hery-ib-Neith</em>, ca. 945–712 B.C.E. Wood, stucco, pigment, 13 3/8 x 8 1/16 in. (34 x 20.4 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 37.1384E. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 37.1384E_PS4.jpg)

Stela of the Lady of the House, Hery-ib-Neith, ca. 945–712 B.C.E. Wood, stucco, pigment, 13 3/8 x 8 1/16 in. (34 x 20.4 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 37.1384E. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 37.1384E_PS4.jpg)

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Can I have more information please?

This is the "Stela of the Lady of the House, Hery-ib-Neith", depicting a woman entering the afterlife. You can identify her by her yellow skin. The woman's yellow skin indicates her gender, men were often depicted with red skin. Thoth, with the head of an ibis, has blue skin, suggesting a relationship to the moon.The other figures in the image include the god Thoth, who leads her towards Re-horakhty, Isis, and Nephthys. As you will see in other parts of the exhibition, these tactics for depicting skin color could be altered to portray the same individual as either a man or a woman.

What about this piece indicates gender transformation?

This exhibition, while focusing on the new scholarship on gender transformation in the ancient Egyptian belief system, also seeks to portray the more straightforward aspects of a woman's tomb.

This stela belonged to a woman who is depicted all the way to the right of the composition being led in front of the gods by Thoth.

What kind of material did they use to paint?

Ancient people had many varied ways of painting with pigment, just like we do today. Even in ancient Egypt, there was not simply one set of pigments or way of painting.

Unfortunately, the mediums and binders used in Egyptian paint are something of a debate, so it's often hard to say. Mineral pigments were used to achieve the colors. For instance, some bright yellows were made with arsenic. In the case of coffins and cartonnages, a layer of beeswax over the pigment was also sometimes used to preserve the painting, complicating the issue further.

Stela of the Lady of the House, Hery-ib-Neith

Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art

MEDIUM Wood, stucco, pigment

Reportedly From: Thebes, Egypt

DATES ca. 945–712 B.C.E.

DYNASTY Dynasty 22

PERIOD Third Intermediate Period

DIMENSIONS 13 3/8 x 8 1/16 in. (34 x 20.4 cm) (show scale)

COLLECTIONS Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art

ACCESSION NUMBER 37.1384E

CREDIT LINE Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund

CATALOGUE DESCRIPTION Wooden stela. Below lunette, a scene (right to left) of deceased being led by Thoth towards hawk-headed Re-Horakhty, Isis, and Nephthys. Four lines of inscription for the lady of the house hr-ib-Nt.

EXHIBITIONS

A Woman's Afterlife: Gender Transformation in Ancient Egypt

MUSEUM LOCATION This item is not on view

CAPTION Stela of the Lady of the House, Hery-ib-Neith, ca. 945–712 B.C.E. Wood, stucco, pigment, 13 3/8 x 8 1/16 in. (34 x 20.4 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 37.1384E. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 37.1384E_PS4.jpg)

IMAGE overall, 37.1384E_PS4.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2016

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RIGHTS STATEMENT Creative Commons-BY

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