Brooklyn Museum — Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art · statue

Calf Bearer

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Accession: 51.222
Find spot: Egypt, Egypt approx. site location
Period: Late Period to Ptolemaic Period
Dynasty: Dynasty 30
Date: 4th–3rd century B.C.E.
Date range: 399 BCE – 201 BCE
Materials: ['Faience or glass']
Height: 8.2 cm
Width: 6.2 cm
Repository: Brooklyn Museum
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Cite & export

Brooklyn Museum — Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art, Calf Bearer (51.222). Egyptian Inscriptions Database. https://egyptianinscriptions.org/object/17869

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Description

Object Label: Images of men carrying animals slung over their shoulders are found in Egyptian tomb reliefs and paintings of people bearing offerings for the dead from as early as the Old Kingdom. The fourth and third centuries B.C. provide a number of such images, including one in this vitrine, at least some of which were made for tombs. The purpose of this plaque, however, remains unknown. A few contemporaneous reliefs, including a second in this vitrine, provide parallels for the figure's frontality and for its extremely bold carving. Since most of the objects offering stylistic parallels originated in Lower Egypt, this plaque probably did as well. Caption: Graeco-Egyptian. Calf Bearer, 4th–3rd century B.C.E.. Faience or glass, 3 1/4 x 2 7/16 in. (8.2 x 6.2 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour fund, 51.222. (Photo: Brooklyn Museum)

AI image analysis GPT-4o-2024-08-06

Machine-generated from the object's image on May 2026. Not curatorial; treat deities, names, and signs below as the model's best reading, not authority.

A relief depicting a figure with an animal, possibly a calf, on their shoulders.

The artifact is a relief showing a human figure carrying an animal on their shoulders, which appears to be a calf. The style is somewhat worn, with notable features including the headdress on the figure and the positioning of the animal. The piece appears to be made of limestone and shows signs of erosion or wear.

unclear unknown fragmentary

Materials limestone

Connections

Found at Egypt

Materials Limestone Faience

Cross-references (2)

BKM-Accession 51.222 tier-2
BKM-Object 3561 tier-2

About this record's data

From the source institution — accession, description, dimensions, and dating are as catalogued by Brooklyn Museum — Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art.
AI-inferred — the image-analysis panel (deities, names, signs) is machine-generated and may be wrong.
Approximate location — most map points are plotted at the site centroid, not the exact findspot.
Inferred links — cross-references marked with a match method other than explicit-source-field were matched by us, not stated by the source.