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Ceiling painting from the palace of Amenhotep III

Period:
New Kingdom
Dynasty:
Dynasty 18
Reign:
reign of Amenhotep III
Date:
ca. 1390–1353 B.C.
Geography:
From Egypt, Upper Egypt, Thebes, Malqata, Palace of Amenhotep III, Antechamber to King's bedroom, MMA excavations, 1910–11
Medium:
Dried Mud, mud plaster, paint Gesso
Dimensions:
h. 140 cm (55 1/8 in); w. 140 cm (55 1/8 in)
Credit Line:
Rogers Fund, 1911
Accession Number:
11.215.451
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 119
The important buildings in the palace complex of Amenhotep III at Malqata were embellished with floor, wall, and ceiling paintings. This partially restored section of a ceiling painting was discovered lying face up in a room adjacent to the king's bedchamber. The motif consists of a repeating pattern of rosette-filled running spirals alternating with bucrania (ox skulls). Similar ceiling patterns, both painted and modeled in plaster, have been excavated at Aegean sites of a slightly earlier period.

Other obejcts excavated at Malqata are displayed in gallery 120.
Museum excavations, 1910–11. Acquired by the Museum in the Division of Finds, 1911.

Pijoán, José 1950. Summa Artis: Historia general del arte, Vol. III. 1950. Madrid, 341, fig. 460.

Timelines
Egypt, 2000–1000 B.C.

"Art of the Aegean Bronze Age": The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, v. 69, no. 4 (Spring, 2012)
The Scepter of Egypt: A Background for the Study of the Egyptian Antiquities in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Vol. 2, The Hyksos Period and the New Kingdom (1675–1080 B.C.)

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