Bakers and Brewers from Meketre’s model bakery

Topic: Bread and beer-Models of Bakers and Brewers  

Happy Summer solstice everyone!  

Pictures of the models:  

Brewers and Bakers 12th Dynasty

 

  

  

   

  

   

Brewing and Baking-Meketre Tomb Thebes

Model of Making Bread

Middle Kingdom, Dynasty 12, reign of Amenemhat I, ca. 1975 b.c.
Egyptian; From the tomb of Meketre, western Thebes
Plastered and painted wood.

 

The figures in Meketre’s models, especially those from the combined bakery and brewery, are small works of art in their own right. Although several figures in a given model may be performing the same task, each is a distinct individual, and each has a slightly different pose.  

The most striking aspect of Meketre’s brewers is their arms, which were specially crafted for each figure according to the task he performs. These figures and those in Meketre’s other models convey a feeling of motion that was seldom achieved, or desired, in more formal Egyptian statuary. Note particularly the pose of the man decanting beer at the right.  

Related

Source: Bakers and Brewers from Meketre’s model bakery [Egyptian; From the tomb of Meketre, western Thebes] (20.3.12) | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art  

A Short Bio Meketre-   

 He was a high official during the reign of Mentuhotep II, Mentuhotep III, Mentuhotep IV and Amenemhat I which spanned the 11th and 12th Dynasties. He served as Overseer of the Six Great Law Courts, Treasurer and Chief Steward. He died during the early years of Amenemhat’s reign and was cone of the last high-officials to be buried at Thebes before the royal court moved to Lisht.  

Atricle at   

Metropolitan Meseum of Art 

Meketre had more models in his tomb, those and more on his tomb which with its representations of ancient Egyptian daily life is so important to our understanding of that social dynamic beyond the Pharaohs. 

 

 

 

 

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