The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 22, 2026

A vertically oriented boxwood paint palette features five circular wells containing dried cakes of pigment. From top to bottom, the colors are burnt red, deep blue, pale green, and two black. The pigment has a cracked texture and has bled slightly onto the surrounding wood. Blue hieroglyphic inscriptions border the upper and lower short edges, while the natural wood grain runs vertically along the length of the narrow implement.

Paint Box of Vizier Amenemope

c. 1427–1401 BCE

Egypt, New Kingdom

(1540–1069 BCE), Dynasty 18, reign of Amenhotep II (1425–1400 BCE)
boxwood with inscription inlaid in Egyptian blue
Overall: 2.2 x 21 x 3.6 cm (7/8 x 8 1/4 x 1 7/16 in.)
Gift of the John Huntington Art and Polytechnic Trust 1914.680
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

Painting was a popular and time-honored pastime among the upper classes in Egypt.

Description

This paint box still preserves its original cakes of pigment: one cake each of red (red ochre), blue (Egyptian blue), green (a mixture of Egyptian blue, yellow ochre, and orpiment) and two of black (carbon black, from charcoal). It belonged to Amenemope, who was vizier, or prime minister, under Amenhotep II. Amenemope probably used his paint box for recreation.
  • ?-1913
    Mohammed Mohasseb and Son, Luxor, sold to Lucy Olcott Perkins through Henry W. Kent
    1913-1914
    (Lucy Olcott Perkins, New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    1914-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland Museum of Art: Catalogue of the Inaugural Exhibition, June 6-September 20, 1916. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1916. p. 205, no. 10 archive.org
    Williams, Caroline Ransom. "The Egyptian Collection in the Museum of Art at Cleveland, Ohio (Continued)." The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 5, no. 4 (1918). p. 278 www.jstor.org
    Rhodes, Lynette I. Science Within Art. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1980. no. 17
    Egypt's Golden Age, the Art of Living in the New Kingdom, 1558-1085 B.C.: Catalogue of the Exhibition. Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1982. no. 398
    Freed, Rita E. Ramesses the Great: The Pharaoh and His Time. Charlotte, N.C.: Mint Museum of Art, 1988. p. 103
    J. Paul Getty Museum, and Getty Conservation Institute. In the Tomb of Nefertari: Conservation of the Wall Paintings. [Malibu, Calif.]: J. Paul Getty Museum, 1992. no. 12
    Schulz, Regine, Matthias Seidel, and Hartwig Altenmüller. Egypt: the world of the pharaohs. Köln: Könemann, 1998. p. 348, fig. 39
    Berman, Lawrence M., and Kenneth J. Bohač. Catalogue of Egyptian Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1999 Reproduced: p. 312, Color p. 57; Mentioned: p. 311-312
    Strosberg, Eliane. Art and Science. Paris: Unesco Publ, 1999. p. 137
    Vandenbeusch, Marie, Aude Semat, and Margaret Maitland. Pharaoh: King of Ancient Egypt. Cleveland: The Cleveland Museum of Art ; London : The British Museum, 2016.


    Mentioned: p. 113, 165; Reproduced: p. 112
    Tedbury, Imogen. "Our Woman in Cairo: Lucy Olcott Perkin's Work as an Agent for the Cleveland Museum of Art." In The Art Market and the Museum: Institutional Collecting, Display and Patronage since the Mid-Nineteenth Century. Edited by Frances Fowle, and MaryKate Cleary, 167-183. London: Bloomsbury Visual Arts, 2025. Mentioned: p. 173; Reproduced: pl. 14
  • Pharaoh: King of Ancient Egypt. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 13-June 12, 2016).
    In the Tomb of Nefertari: Conservation of the Wall Paintings, The J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu, CA (12 November 1992-21 February 1993).
    Egypt’s Golden Age: The Art of Living in the New Kingdom 1558-1085 B.C., Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (Feb. 3-May 2, 1982); Houston Museum of Natural Science (July 14-Sept. 19, 1982); Walters Art Gallery (Oct. 27, 1982-Jan. 2, 1983).
    Science within Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (February 13-April 20, 1980).
    Inaugural Exhibition, The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (June 6-September 20, 1916).
  • {{cite web|title=Paint Box of Vizier Amenemope|url=false|author=|year=c. 1427–1401 BCE|access-date=22 April 2026|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1914.680