The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of March 29, 2024

Chair or Bed Leg with the God Bes

Chair or Bed Leg with the God Bes

1540–1296 BCE
Overall: 44.7 x 5.9 cm (17 5/8 x 2 5/16 in.)
Location: 107 Egyptian

Description

The genial god Bes appears here in the form of a furniture leg. With hands on his pot belly and wearing a short kilt with a long apron, he stands bowlegged on a truncated cone base. He has long, upward sweeping, diagonal eyebrows, large eyes, full cheeks, and rounded ears, and he wears a full beard and mustache. His body is soft and unmuscular. As a household god, Bes figured prominently as a decorative motif both in royal and private dwellings.
  • Purchased from Nanette Kelekian, New York
  • Berman, Lawrence M., and Kenneth J. Bohač. Catalogue of Egyptian Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1999 Reproduced: p. 309; Mentioned: p. 308-309
  • The Year in Review for 1982. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 5-February 6, 1983).
    CMA, 5 January-6 February 1983, The Year in Review for 1982, cat.: CMA Bulletin 70, no. 1 (January 1983), no. 3
  • {{cite web|title=Chair or Bed Leg with the God Bes|url=false|author=|year=1540–1296 BCE|access-date=29 March 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1982.42