Relief of a Pharaoh Worshipping Thoth
Relief of a Pharaoh Worshipping Thoth
24.2 x 77.5 cm (9 ¹/₂ x 30 ¹/₂ inches)
Limestone
380-30 BC, 30th Dynasty, Late Period-Ptolemaic Period
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A rectangular block of limestone carved with a detailed scene in sunken relief. The ibis-headed deity Thoth is depicted facing to the left, wearing the atef crown and headdress with corkscrew horns. The god holds the was-sceptre, representing power and dominion, in front of himself. Two hands with slightly upturned fingertips are visible on the left of the relief, facing the god. These represent a pharaoh offering the emblem of the goddess Ma’at to Thoth. Above the hands are the lower portions of two cartouches, which would have held hieroglyphic inscriptions identifying the pharaoh. Parts of the original polychrome paint survive, particularly in the red colour of the king’s hands and the blue-green paint on the hieroglyphic figure of Ma’at. The detailed carving on Thoth’s wig and headdress, as well as the expressive rendering of the hands, and the incorporation of the horns into the atef-crown, suggest a date in the 30th Dynasty or early Ptolemaic period.
Scenes depicting the pharaoh offering Ma’at to various gods and goddesses are represented in many Egyptian temples, gaining particular prominence by the Ptolemaic period. Ma’at was both herself a goddess and the personification of truth, balance, law, and justice. Presenting Ma’at to other deities illustrated the reciprocal relationship between the pharaoh and the gods. Thoth, god of wisdom and writing, was also the masculine counterpart of Ma’at, and often called ‘Lord of Ma’at’.
Robert Wright, ‘Galleries: Painter of the Norditerranean’, The Tatler & Bystander, 7 March 1962, p. 553.
David Aaron, IX, 2026, no. 23, pp. 89-92.
Previously with KJ Hewett, London, by at least 1962.
Private Collection of Elsa Vaudrey Barker-Mill (1905-1990), Montpelier Square, London, gifted by the above by 1962, accompanied by 1988 Memorandum of Wishes and Probate Inventory dated 10 July 1990.
Private Collection, UK, acquired from the above by bequest, 1990.
Thence by descent.
ALR: S00274274, with IADAA Certificate, this item has been checked against the Interpol database.
Elsa Vaudrey Barker-Mill (1905-1990), née Dun, was born in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1905. She attended the Glasgow School of Art. During the Second World War, Barker-Mill helped with the administration of the Stonefield Maternity Home in London, which was known for promoting a vegetarian diet. She married her second husband, fellow artist, Peter Vaudrey Barker-Mill in 1937. They had one child and divorced in 1950. Barker-Mill exhibited frequently at The Redfern Gallery in London, with a solo show in 1957, and she had an exhibition at the Fine Art Society, London, in 1990. Examples of her work featured in the exhibition Action, Gesture, Paint: Women Artists and Global Abstraction 1940-1970 at the Whitechapel Gallery, London.
Established 1910
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