Wall Relief of a Woman Bringing an Offering Vase

This block of painted limestone, about 26 centimetres high, comes from the tomb chapel of Kemsit, one of the wives of King Mentuhotep II. She bore the title King's Beloved Wife and served as a priestess of Hathor, goddess of love and music. She was buried at Deir el-Bahari in western Thebes, behind the king's own funerary temple, among several royal women whose small chapels were lined with painted reliefs.

The woman on this block wears a heavy wig falling in three parts and a broad collar, and carries a vase forward as an offering. Another relief from Kemsit's tomb, now in the British Museum, shows the queen herself on a low chair, holding a jar of scented ointment to her nose while a manservant pours her a drink.

The Swiss archaeologist Édouard Naville cleared the temple for the Egypt Exploration Fund in the first years of the 20th century, and pieces of the chapel ended up in several museums. The Louvre bought this one from Maurice Nahman, a dealer in Cairo, between 1908 and 1909.