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Walters Art Museum (Egyptian) · statue

Statue of Tef-ib

Source of record: Walters Art Museum (Egyptian) — catalogued by the holding institution. View the original record →

Description

<p>Tombs sometimes contained more than one statue representing the owner. The statues were usually inscribed with the owner's name and titles, and they served as a focus for funerary rituals. These examples, belonging to a man named Tef-ib, are unusual in that they represent the tomb owner while also bearing inscriptions referring to the four sons of Horus, who protected the internal organs of the deceased. These deities were also identified with the north, south, east, and west, and the statues may have been placed in the tomb in accordance with these directions. The differing facial features of these statues (including Walters 22.10, 22.11, 22.12) suggest that they were made by more than one artist. Notice as well, the sizes of the four figures differ as well as their wigs.</p><p>For the latest information about this object, <cite><a href='https://purl.thewalters.org/art/22.13' rel='external'>Statue of Tef-ib</a></cite>, visit the Online Collection of the Walters Art Museum.</p>

AI image analysis GPT-5.4-nano

Machine-generated from the object's image on Jul 2026. Not curatorial; treat deities, names, and signs below as the model's best reading, not authority.

Black-and-white studio photograph of a painted Egyptian wooden standing statue of a male figure holding one arm across the torso, wearing a nemes-like wig and a painted kilt bearing hieroglyphic text.

The image shows a full-length, front-facing standing statue with a human figure, arms held in a crossed/embraced position across the upper body. The figure has a stylized head with a patterned headdress (resembling a nemes or similar wig) and a simplified face. The torso and legs appear monochrome/grey in the photograph, while the lower garment is painted with multiple vertical bands of hieroglyphs and other grouped signs. A rectangular painted belt area and a kilt with distinct sign blocks are visible. The base is a separate solid block. No clearly legible cartouches or royal titles are readable at this resolution; the inscription appears to be on the kilt only. No external Greek, Coptic, or Arabic text is visible.

royal Ancient Egyptian, likely Late Period to Ptolemaic (exact dynasty unclear from photo alone). good
Materials wood (carved figure)painted decorationpainted hieroglyphic inscription
Signs grouped hieroglyphic text bands on the kilt (specific signs unclear) ×10
Visible text "Unclear/illegible in the provided image; hieroglyphic bands present on the kilt."

Inscriptions (1)

Inscription #1

English description

[Translation] ""The revered before Qebh-senuf, the domain-superintendent, Itf-ib, engendered by Itf-ib, the blessed, lord of reverence.""

Connections

Deities Horus

Cross-references (2)

  • Walters-AccNum 22.13 tier-2
  • Walters-id 39671 tier-2

Similar inscriptions · by content embedding

About this record's data
  • From the source institution — accession, description, dimensions, and dating are as catalogued by Walters Art Museum (Egyptian).
  • AI-inferred — the image-analysis panel (deities, names, signs) is machine-generated and may be wrong.
  • Approximate location — most map points are plotted at the site centroid, not the exact findspot.
  • Inferred links — cross-references marked with a match method other than explicit-source-field were matched by us, not stated by the source.