"Campana" Relief with a Nilotic Scene

Label

Two rounded arches frame a bustling scene of the Nile River, as though the viewer is looking out from a portico to the river itself. Two short-statured men row a boat beneath the right-hand arch, while a nude woman reclines near a hut on the left. The scene is filled with crocodiles, a hippo, and various waterfowl and would have originally been painted in bright colors.

Despite the Egyptian subject matter, this relief was made for a Roman audience and likely once adorned the interior of a Roman home. The abundance and fertility of the Nile may have suggested personal richness for Roman landowners in their domestic space. However, the scene also served to present Egypt as exotic and Other, particularly in its inclusion of the two male figures, traditionally identified as pygmies, who would have been understood in the first century CE as a mythological sign of a distant land.

From the exhibition, Stone, Sand, and Clay: Connecting Cultures in the Ancient Mediterranean, curated by Ashley B. Offill, Curator of Collections

Course History

ARTH 25, Roman Art, Kathleen Corrigan, Winter 2012

ANTH 7, Thinking About Empire, Alan Covey, Winter 2014

ANTH 50.04, Digital Heritage, Meredith Ferguson, Spring 2019

CLST 06, Introduction to Classical Archaeology, Flint Dibble, Fall 2020

ARTH 7.10, Egyptomania, Steven Kangas, Winter 2021

ARTH 10.03, Art in Egypt, Steven Kangas, Winter 2021

ARTH 7.10, Egyptomania, Steven Kangas, Winter 2021

ARTH 12.05, Roman Art, Ada Cohen, Winter 2022

Classical Studies 6.01, Introduction to Classical Archaeology, Margaretha Kramer, Fall 2023

Art History 10.03, Middle Eastern Studies 16.42, Art in Egypt, Steven Kangas, Spring 2024

Art History 10.03, Middle Eastern Studies 16.42, Art in Egypt, Steven Kangas, Spring 2024

Classical Studies 6.01, Introduction to Classical Archaeology, Margaretha Kramer, Fall 2024

Classical Studies 6.02, Introduction to Classical Archaeology, Margaretha Kramer, Fall 2024

Classical Studies 25.01, Early Roman Archaeology, Margaretha Kramer, Winter 2025

Classics 12.02, Greek & Roman Engineering & Technology, Margaretha Kramer, Spring 2025

History 10.02, Archival Research, Julia Rabig, Summer 2025

Anthropology 31.01, Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies 36.01, Gender in Cross Cultural Perspectives, Sabrina Billings, Fall 2025

Theater 15.01, Theatre & Society I, Samantha Lazar, Fall 2025

Exhibition History

Gene Y. Kim, Class of 1985, Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, August 13, 2000-February 7, 2005.

Gene Y. Kim, Class of 1985, Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, February 19-November 30, 2008.

Glimpses of Ancient Life, Highlights from the Hood Museum of Art's Collection of Ancient Art, Gene Y. Kim, Class of 1985 Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, August 19, 2000.

Investigations into the Ancient Mediterranean, Harrington Gallery Teaching Exhibition, Yale University Collection-Sharing Initiative, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, May 5-June 24, 2012.

Stone, Sand, and Clay: Connecting Cultures in the Ancient Mediterranean, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, June 7, 2025 - Ongoing

Waterways: Tension and Flow, Harrington Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, April 4-August 23, 2015.

Publication History

Investigations into the Ancient Mediterranean, Special Hood Website: The Yale University Art Gallery Collection-Sharing Initiative, 2012

Provenance

Leon Albert Marantz, East Orange, New Jersey; given to present collection, 1977.

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Subjects