At the Menil Collection in downtown Houston, there are many wonderful pieces of art that capture one’s eye and makes them wonder what this pieces of work mean. There are many pieces like the “Relief Depicting High Priest of Amun” from Egypt, “Crucifix” from Kongo, and “Sunken Relief Depicting Horus” from Egypt that have an aesthetic appeal and make a person question what, who, and/or why this art was made. The piece of work that catches one's eye the most it the “Sunken Relief Depicting Horus” from Egypt, this stone slab has a carving of the god Horus along with inscribed hieroglyphics. To look at “Sunken Relief Depicting Horus” is a unique and interesting experience. To understand this work one must first learn the history behind …show more content…
There are hieroglyphics in the top left corner and Horus is body stretches from the top to bottom of the slab, most of his body is located on the right side, with his arch stretched out to the left side, where he is holding a staff. That is all that is visible on the slab, and for an Egyptian work of art, this is quite strange. Usually, their art is filled with colorful paintings or carvings of animals and other people. In ones that are made for the gods, there would be people bowing down or honoring the God also in the artwork. But “Sunken Relief Depicting Horus” does not have any of those characteristics, it does not even have color. There are a couple of questions this brings up, was this stone slab ever finished, is this uncompleted work, or has the paint chipped off or faded away? From what can be observed there are no signs of color are carvings other than the one of Horus. It was interesting to see, most Egyptian artworks in museums are filled with work, even if they are fading away, they are still present. See this one looks so simple it was intriguing, this stone slab shows the god Horus having relief over something, but what would it be, how would the audience now and in the past know what Horus was received about if there are no other images to help the audience