DRAG IMAGE TO ROTATE ARTWORK
Model of a female servant
Middle Kingdom, Dynasties mid XI–XII 2020 BCE-1773 BCE
Medium
wood, gesso, pigment
Measurements
40.7 × 9.7 × 17.3 cm
Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Felton Bequest, 1939
© Public Domain
Gallery location
18th Century Decorative Arts - Great Hall Costume Corridor
Level 2, NGV International
About this work
Striding forward, this female servant figure carries a basket on her head that would have been filled with provisions and offerings for the deceased, in whose tomb this model would have been placed. She is fashionably dressed in a white linen shiftdress with a red sash that crosses over her chest. Her hair is styled with a fringe and cut to chin length around the front and sides but is left long at the back. The iconography of female figures carrying offerings on their head for the deceasedis well known from Old Kingdom tombs, which were often decorated with rows of offering bearers.
Artwork Details
Place/s of Execution
Egypt
Accession Number
D150-1982
Department
Antiquities
This digital record has been made available on NGV Collection Online through the generous support of Digitisation Champion Ms Carol Grigor through Metal Manufactures Limited
Physical description
Figure of a woman standing on a rectangular plinth with her left leg forward, her left arm by her side and her right arm vertical as if holding the basket on her head. The arms are attached by short dowel rods. On her head she carries a basket with a flat, square base and four sides that taper down to the base. She wears a tight fitting dress which begins just below her chest and is held by two shoulder straps and two other straps which cross on the front and hang down the back. The crossing straps are painted brown, as is the band around the top of the dress. The dress and two shoulder straps are cream, outlined in black. She wears a wig in a short bob style at the front but which hangs down the back to the centre of her back. The basket on her head is cream with a black square design around it and the plinth is painted black on top and reddish brown around the sides. Her facial features are well preserved, the nose and the mouth being carved and the eyes and eyebrows painted in black.
The figure and plinth are wooden, covered in a layer of gesso and painted, although areas of gesso and paint have worn/flaked off both.