The Cleveland Museum of Art
Collection Online as of December 22, 2025
Chair or Bed Leg with the God Bes
1540–1296 BCE
Location: 107 Egyptian
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.- Purchased from Nanette Kelekian, New York
- “Annual Report for 1982.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 70, no. 6 (June 1983): 223–270. Reproduced: p. 228 www.jstor.orgBerman, Lawrence M., and Kenneth J. Bohač. Catalogue of Egyptian Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1999 Reproduced: p. 309; Mentioned: p. 308-309
- The Year in Review for 1982. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 5-February 6, 1983).CMA, 5 January-6 February 1983, The Year in Review for 1982, cat.: CMA Bulletin 70, no. 1 (January 1983), no. 3
- {{cite web|title=Chair or Bed Leg with the God Bes|url=false|author=|year=1540–1296 BCE|access-date=22 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}
Source URL:
https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1982.42