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Egyptian

Paint Box, 1302–1070 BCE

Now On View

Description

Maker

  • Unknown

Culture

Egyptian

Title

Paint Box

Year

1302–1070 BCE

Medium

Ceramic and pigment cakes

Materials/Techniques

Materials

  • pigment,
  • clay products

Dimensions

5.8 x 22 x 5.5 cm (2 5/16 x 8 11/16 x 2 3/16 inches)

Type

  • Ceramics

Credit

Helen M. Danforth Acquisition Fund

Object Number

1997.82

Projects & Publications

Publications

Manual / Issue 4

Blue
Read Online

Teaching Notes / Think Like an Archaeologist

Read Online

Selected Works

Exhibition History

Exhibition History

Ancient Egyptian Galleries

Only a handful of paint boxes survive from ancient Egypt. This unusual cermaic example has a sliding lid with a grip in the form of a genet, an animal related to the mongoose. The stylized papyrus thickets represent the genet's habitat of tall grasses and shrubs.

Featuring a hollow well for water and brush storage, the box contains seven pigment cakes of yellow ochre, Egyptian blue (a synthetic pigment composed of silica, copper, and calcium), calcium carbonate (white), hematite (dark red), hematite mixed with calcium carbonate (lighter red), and two charcoal blacks. Painters used these same pigments to decorate statuary and the walls of temples and tombs.

Related

Egyptian

Paint box, 1307-1070 BCE

Egyptian

Paint box, around 1307-1070 BCE

More objects +

Use

The images on this website can enable discovery and collaboration and support new scholarship, and we encourage their use. This object is in the public domain (CC0 1.0). This object is Paint Box with the accession number of 1997.82. To request high-resolution files or new photography, please send an email to imagerequest@risd.edu and include your name and the object's accession number.

Feedback

We view our online collection as a living documents, and our records are frequently revised and enhanced. If you have additional information or have spotted an error, please send feedback to curatorial@risd.edu.

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