<em>Inlay in the Form of a Bunch of Grapes</em>, ca. 1352–1336 B.C.E. Faience, 2 7/8 × 1 7/8 × 3/4 in. (7.3 × 4.8 × 1.9 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Evangeline Wilbour Blashfield, Theodora Wilbour, and Victor Wilbour honoring the wishes of their mother, Charlotte Beebe Wilbour, as a memorial to their father, Charles Edwin Wilbour, 16.362. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, CUR.16.362_overall.JPG)

Inlay in the Form of a Bunch of Grapes, ca. 1352–1336 B.C.E. Faience, 2 7/8 × 1 7/8 × 3/4 in. (7.3 × 4.8 × 1.9 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Evangeline Wilbour Blashfield, Theodora Wilbour, and Victor Wilbour honoring the wishes of their mother, Charlotte Beebe Wilbour, as a memorial to their father, Charles Edwin Wilbour, 16.362. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, CUR.16.362_overall.JPG)

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Download our app and ask your own questions during your visit. Here are some that others have asked.

I've never seen ancient art like this before. Is this considered more rare than the limestone pieces from that era?

I'm not sure how frequent inlays like this are found, but I do know that they are often quite fragmentary thus making them not as interesting or informative to display. Which explains why you don't see them as much. Plus these inlays come from the city of Amarna where people actually lived rather than a tomb or temple like much of the objects on view from ancient Egypt.

The material that they are made out of was actually quite common. You'll see many small objects like figurines--usually blue--made out of faience as well.

Wanted to know more about this. Also, where is this region?

This case shows a sampling of faience inlays from Amarna, the capital of the era in which Akhenaten and Nefertiti ruled and worshipped the deity the sun disc, Aten. The city was called Akhetaten in ancient times and was located to the east of the Nile in central Egypt, in what is now the Minya governate.

The material you're looking at, faience, is something you will see throughout Egyptian art. Often green-blue, faience is made from a quartz-based paste molded and fired at a high temperature, with a glaze of powdered glass mixed with liquid.

Inlay in the Form of a Bunch of Grapes

Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art

On View: Amarna Period, Martha A. and Robert S. Rubin Gallery, 3rd Floor

Amarna artists often tried to create interior spaces that looked and felt like the outdoors. Many rooms in Akhenaten's palaces featured three-dimensional grape clusters hung high on the wall and grapevines painted on the ceiling. Such decorations created the illusion of sitting under a huge grape arbor.

MEDIUM Faience

DATES ca. 1352–1336 B.C.E.

DYNASTY late Dynasty 18

PERIOD New Kingdom, Amarna Period

DIMENSIONS 2 7/8 × 1 7/8 × 3/4 in. (7.3 × 4.8 × 1.9 cm) (show scale)

COLLECTIONS Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art

ACCESSION NUMBER 16.362

CREDIT LINE Gift of Evangeline Wilbour Blashfield, Theodora Wilbour, and Victor Wilbour honoring the wishes of their mother, Charlotte Beebe Wilbour, as a memorial to their father, Charles Edwin Wilbour

PROVENANCE Archaeological provenance not yet documented, probably from Tell el-Amarna, Egypt; by 1896, acquired in Egypt by Charles Edwin Wilbour; 1896, inherited from Charles Edwin Wilbour by Charlotte Beebe Wilbour; 1914, inherited from Charlotte Beebe Wilbour by Evangeline Wilbour Blashfield, Theodora Wilbour, and Victor Wilbour; 1916, gift of Evangeline Wilbour Blashfield, Theodora Wilbour, and Victor Wilbour to the Brooklyn Museum.

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EXHIBITIONS

MUSEUM LOCATION This item is on view in Amarna Period, Martha A. and Robert S. Rubin Gallery, 3rd Floor

CAPTION Inlay in the Form of a Bunch of Grapes, ca. 1352–1336 B.C.E. Faience, 2 7/8 × 1 7/8 × 3/4 in. (7.3 × 4.8 × 1.9 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Evangeline Wilbour Blashfield, Theodora Wilbour, and Victor Wilbour honoring the wishes of their mother, Charlotte Beebe Wilbour, as a memorial to their father, Charles Edwin Wilbour, 16.362. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, CUR.16.362_overall.JPG)

IMAGE overall, CUR.16.362_overall.JPG. Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2024

"CUR" at the beginning of an image file name means that the image was created by a curatorial staff member. These study images may be digital point-and-shoot photographs, when we don\'t yet have high-quality studio photography, or they may be scans of older negatives, slides, or photographic prints, providing historical documentation of the object.

RIGHTS STATEMENT Creative Commons-BY

You may download and use Brooklyn Museum images of this three-dimensional work in accordance with a Creative Commons license. Fair use, as understood under the United States Copyright Act, may also apply. Please include caption information from this page and credit the Brooklyn Museum. If you need a high resolution file, please fill out our online application form (charges apply). For further information about copyright, we recommend resources at the United States Library of Congress, Cornell University, Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums, and Copyright Watch. For more information about the Museum's rights project, including how rights types are assigned, please see our blog posts on copyright. If you have any information regarding this work and rights to it, please contact copyright@brooklynmuseum.org.

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Not every record you will find here is complete. More information is available for some works than for others, and some entries have been updated more recently. Records are frequently reviewed and revised, and we welcome any additional information you might have.

Download our app and ask your own questions during your visit. Here are some that others have asked.

I've never seen ancient art like this before. Is this considered more rare than the limestone pieces from that era?

The material that they are made out of was actually quite common. You'll see many small objects like figurines--usually blue--made out of faience as well.

Wanted to know more about this. Also, where is this region?