Builders reused this painted relief block in the foundation of Ramesses IV's mortuary temple, subsequently excavated by the Metropolitan Museum. In the relief, western Asian soldiers are shown being trampled under the horses that pull the royal chariot, signaling the foreigners' defeat in battle by the might of the Egyptian pharaoh. When the piece was excavated, this and another fragment of a battle scene (13.180.22) were dated to the reign of Ramesses II. A recent study of their stylistic and iconographic features, however, has caused scholars to redate them earlier, probably to the reign of Amenhotep II. This redating indicates that by the middle of the Eighteenth Dynasty, monumental battle scenes had become part of the decorative scheme of a temple's exterior walls.
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Artwork Details
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Title:Block from a Relief Depicting a Battle
Period:New Kingdom
Dynasty:Dynasty 18
Reign:possibly reign of Amenhotep II
Date:ca. 1427–1400 B.C.
Geography:From Egypt, Upper Egypt, Thebes, Asasif, Temple of Ramesses IV, foundation (reused), MMA excavations, 1912–13
Medium:Sandstone, paint
Dimensions:H. 61.5 × W. 115 × Th. 21 cm, 306.2 kg (24 3/16 × 45 1/4 × 8 1/4 in., 675 lb.)
Credit Line:Rogers Fund and Edward S. Harkness Gift, 1913
Object Number:13.180.21
Museum excavations, 1912-1913. Acquired by the Museum in the division of finds.
Metropolitan Museum of Art 1914. "Excavations at Thebes in 1912-13, by the Museum's Egyptian Expedition." In The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, vol. 9, no. 1 (January), p. 23, fig. 12.
Winlock, Herbert E. 1914. "Excavations at Thebes in 1912-13, by the Museum's Egyptian Expedition." In The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, 9 (10), pp. 22-23, fig. 12.
Steindorff, Georg 1945. Egypt. New York: J. J. Augustin, p. 132.
Smith, W. Stevenson 1958. The Art and Architecture of Ancient Egypt. Baltimore, pl. 160A.
Hayes, William C. 1959. Scepter of Egypt II: A Background for the Study of the Egyptian Antiquities in the Metropolitan Museum of Art: The Hyksos Period and the New Kingdom (1675-1080 B.C.). Cambridge, Mass.: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, p. 340, fig. 214.
Lilyquist, Christine, Peter F. Dorman, and Edna R. Russmann 1983. The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, vol. 41, no. 3 (Winter), New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, pp. 42–43, fig. 42 (PD).
Dorman, Peter F., Prudence Harper, and Holly Pittman 1987. Egypt and the Ancient Near East. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, pp.70-71.
Thomas, Nancy, Catharine H. Roehrig, Marsha Hill, James P. Allen, and Peter Brand 1995. The American Discovery of Ancient Egypt. Los Angeles, pp. 170–171, no. 74 (PB).
2002. The Pharaohs. Venice, no. 92, p. 424 ( I. Franco).
Allen, James P. 2005. "Battle Scene." In The Art of Medicine in Ancient Egypt, edited by James P. Allen and David T. Mininberg. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, pp. 38–39, no. 33.
Roehrig, Catharine H. 2008. "Relief Fragment with Vanquished Enemies." In Beyond Babylon: art, trade, and diplomacy in the second millennium B.C., edited by Joan Aruz, Kim Benzel, and Jean M. Evans. New York; New Haven and London: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, p. 263, no. 163.
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The Met's collection of ancient Egyptian art consists of approximately 26,000 objects of artistic, historical, and cultural importance, dating from the Paleolithic to the Roman period.
