Who is this?
The relief depicts Akhet-hotep, he's the owner of the nearby giant Sarcophagus. Akhet-Hotep was an important official and possibly the brother of the Pharaoh Khafre, he was buried near the great pyramid of Khufu.
The kilt Akhet-hotep wears is short, an indication of youthfulness and activity. He also wears a short wig appropriate for everyday life.
I want to know why this shows both his legs as left legs instead of as left and right legs. Does it refer to the Asian culture saying male is on the left and female is on the right?
That's a great catch. Often times in Egyptian art there is more emphasis on portraying the most characteristic view of a feature, sacrificing realism. In this case the foot is most characteristically portrayed and easily identified when rendered in this way with the toes facing inward. It makes the figure’s feet look more like the hieroglyph for “b” that is based on a foot.
You can see a break with this tradition in the relief of the "Sandaled Feet of Queen Nefertiti" in the Amarna gallery. She has two different feet and we get a rare glimpse of all five toes on the right foot.
Ok, thanks a lot!
Just read about Egyptian depictions of feet. It's a strange place to get hung up in terms of drawing, is there anything deeper there?
Not necessarily deeper, but it starts to make more sense when you consider all of the other "hang ups" in ancient Egyptian drawing.
The way that ancient Egyptians rendered people in two dimensions is often described as "isolation and reassemblage." They were more interested in showing a complete body than a realistic one. Notice the legs don't line up with torso which doesn't line up with the head. With feet in particular, the idea was the one side of the foot was more characteristic of a foot than the other, so they always showed that side.
Yeah the legs isolated make sense. Weird scene. Trying to imagine the mindset, a trip.
They certainly had different priorities!
What does this bird mean?
This bird and the symbols around it are all hieroglyphs spelling out this man's name, Akhty-hotep.
This bird sign is based on a crested ibis and it stands for the "akh" sound at the beginning of his name. Hieroglyphs can be written either from right to left or left to right. You always read towards the faces of the animal and people signs; here it is right to left.
Thank you so much!
You're welcome! You'll see hieroglyphs on most of the ancient Egyptian art in our collection. The written name was the most important way to identify a subject!