Relief Representation of a Battle Scene
Description
Object Label: The walls of New Kingdom temples frequently show the king triumphing over Egypt's enemies. Such reliefs either depict idealized versions of actual historical events or serve as propaganda warning foreigners of the inevitable destruction that would follow acts of hostility against Egypt. Symbolically, these scenes represent the victory of Egyptian universal order over the forces of chaos living in foreign lands. In such battle scenes, the Egyptian army, as the defender of Ma'at, is invariably arranged in orderly groupings while the enemy scatters in disarray. This block has recently been identified as coming from a monumental wall relief commemorating a military victory in Syria by King Tutankhamun. On the accompanying reconstruction of the entire scene, we see a fundamental convention of Egyptian art: relative size implying relative importance. The king, who coordinates all attempts to preserve Ma 'at, is far larger than his chariot forces, infantry, and fan-bearers. Note how the Syrians lie in a confused mass under the ordered charge of the Egyptian chariots. Caption: Relief Representation of a Battle Scene, ca. 1332–1322 B.C.E.. Sandstone, pigment, 8 1/2 × 10 1/2 × 1 1/8 in. (21.6 × 26.7 × 2.9 cm) mount: 11 1/4 × 13 1/2 × 2 1/2 in. (28.6 × 34.3 × 6.4 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 77.130. (Photo: Brooklyn Museum)
AI image analysis GPT-5.4-nano
Machine-generated from the object's image on Jul 2026. Not curatorial; treat deities, names, and signs below as the model's best reading, not authority.
A fragmentary sandstone relief shows two human/figure-like forms inside a recessed register, with red pigment remaining in outlines and details.
The image depicts a small, curved block or fragment of a sandstone relief with a recessed panel. On the left, a bearded, human-like head/upper figure appears within the bounds of the panel; below/around it are incised lines and red-painted accents. On the right, a standing or kneeling human/figure-like form is partially preserved, again with red pigment in the facial/body features and in the surrounding geometric framework. Between and around the figures there are diagonal and vertical incised lines, but they do not resolve clearly enough into specific battle elements (e.g., weapons, ships, or identifiable combatants). No clear hieroglyphic text, cartouches, or complete inscriptions are visible. No identifiable deity names can be confirmed from the fragmentary features. The object looks consistent with a carved, once-painted Egyptian relief, matching the catalogue's attribution to a relief representation (though the exact 'battle scene' elements are not clearly readable from this image alone).
Cross-references (2)
- BKM-Accession 77.130 tier-2
- BKM-Object 3863 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.