Chair or Bed Leg with the God Bes

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.

Provenance

Purchased from Nanette Kelekian, New York

Chair or Bed Leg with the God Bes

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1540–1296 BCE

Accession Number

1982.42

Medium

tamarisk

Dimensions

Overall: 44.7 x 5.9 cm (17 5/8 x 2 5/16 in.)

Classification

Furniture and woodwork

Museum

The Cleveland Museum of Art

Cleveland, United States

Credit Line

Guerdon S. Holden Memorial Fund