Ancient Egypt, Middle Kingdom, 11th to 12th Dynasty, ca. 2130 to 1802 BCE. A splendid ensemble of 4 wood boatmen, each depicted in the characteristic seated position of a rower and hand-painted in hues of sienna, black, and white atop gesso. All 4 men present slender bodies with lengthy arms that fall to their sides from square shoulders, as their hands rest in their laps. A cropped coiffure caps each head, as they gaze forward from sizeable, outlined eyes beneath thick brows. Though their upper bodies are bare, their legs are covered by loincloths. Size of largest: 1.1" W x 4.4" H (2.8 cm x 11.2 cm); 5.1" H (13 cm) on included custom stand.

During the Sixth Dynasty, it became common to place wooden models of lifelike scenes in Egyptian tombs; by the Middle Kingdom, they were placed in the tomb chamber, around the coffin, although some very rich tombs had a separate chamber just for wooden models. Two ships are found in almost all tombs that have models from this time period, and those ships are, during the Middle Kingdom, staffed by boatmen like these 4. These boatmen were made to be servants in the afterlife, ready to row the deceased upon the eternal Nile as they would in life. Scholars believe that the Egyptians envisioned death as a journey via boat across the River Nile - the sacred river which ran down the center of the country and was respected as a resource for agriculture, trade, transport, and a symbol of fertility. According to the curatorial team at the MFA Boston, such funerary vessels "made of papyrus bundles lashed together, transported the deceased either to a cemetery across the Nile or to the sanctuary of the god of the afterlife, Osiris, at Abydos. Models of such vessels were painted white with reddish lines representing the bindings." As the practice of creating wooden boat models with boatmen continued into the New Kingdom, the numbers continued to increase. In fact, scholars believe that more than 700 figures populated the tomb of Sety I (1294–1279 BCE).

Provenance: ex-Providence, Rhode Island, USA collection; ex-Royal Athena, New York City, New York, USA, December 1, 2001

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#169305

Losses to head and left shoulder of second tallest and base of third tallest. All have nicks, chips, scratches, loss of detail, and abrasions, as well as some losses of pigment, all commensurate with age. Otherwise, all are very nice with great remaining pigments. Men are glued to modern stand.