Two-Sided Plaque with Gazelles

Unknown

ca. 1550–664 B.C. · Faience · Egyptian Art

This two-sided plaque is decorated with incised scenes, depicting a pair of gazelles on each side. Residues of green glaze suggest it was once pale blue-green in color. Dorcas gazelles can be recognized here, with their distinctive lyre-shaped horns bent backwards in a slight S-shape. They are depicted with different attitudes that are related to the gazelle’s behavior in the context of the desert hunt. Although it is difficult to reconstitute the appearance of the object to which it belonged originally, faience bowls and chalices with similar incised scenes representing the desert and the marshes were produced in the Late Periods, reminiscent of the New Kingdom and its "bucolic" representations of nature.

Artist

Unknown

Date

ca. 1550–664 B.C.

Medium

Faience

Department

Egyptian Art

Credit line

Bequest of Nanette B. Kelekian, 2020