Parietal relief of a mastaba with a nilotic scene. Ancient Egypt - Ancient Empire, Dynasty VI, 2325 - 2155 BC. Limestone and pigments. Published: - LIGABUE, G. OSMIDA, G. R. (ed.). Animale e Mito nel Vicino Oriente Antico. Il Punto Edizioni. Pauda. 2008. p. 230. - Apollo Mgazine.C220-4-22 Narrating the past, collecting for the fuiture. 15 August 2017. Provenance: - Private collection, Brussels, received by inheritance. - Harmakhis Gallery, Brussels, acquired from heirs. - Private collection, Dr Giancarlo Ligabue (1931 - 2015), acquired from the previous owner, with a certificate of authenticity dated 11 November 1994. Dr Giancarlo Ligabue (1931-2015) was born in Venice. An accomplished academic with multifaceted interests, he studied at the universities of Cà Foscari (Venice) and Boston, and obtained a PhD in Palaeontology at the Sorbonne University in Paris, followed by four other honorary degrees. At the age of 28 he started working for Ligabue S.p.A. - today a world leader in the ship restoration and supply sector - expanding the business started by his father Anacleto in 1919 all over the world. He cultivated strong passions for archaeology, palaeontology and anthropology, building up a vast and varied collection and founding in 1973 the Ligabue Study and Research Centre, which promoted and organised 130 expeditions to all continents with the collaboration of scientists from the world's leading universities and research centres. The discoveries made in forty years of activity are now part of the history of palaeontology, archaeology and ethnology. - Inherited from the previous owner in 2015. Accompanied by a cultural export permit from Italy. - Private collection, Sheikh Hamad bin Abdullah Al Thani, inventory number BELC932, acquired from the previous owner on 14 September 2017. - Art market, London, 2022. In a good state of conservation, it retains its original polychromy. It presents two restoration lines in the upper corners, professionally covered, without affecting the relief. Measurements: 27 x 32 cm. Fragment of bas-relief, carved in limestone and polychrome, from a parietal scene in a mastaba, representing various species of fish native to the Nile. It would have been part of a much larger scene carved into the walls of a mastaba depicting Egyptian inhabitants engaged in fishing. The realism of the scene makes it possible to identify with certainty the species of the six fish depicted, which are: Clarias lazera, with its characteristic whiskers, Synodontis batensoda, Mugil, Mormylus niloticus, Malapterurus electricus and Tilapia. The latter, together with Mormylus niloticus, or oxyrhynchus, are the best known. The Old Kingdom, from when this relief dates, was an incredibly dynamic period of Egyptian history. Although the origins of many concepts, practices and monuments can be traced back to earlier periods, it was during the Old Kingdom that they developed into the forms that would characterise and influence the rest of Pharaonic history. It is made from a block of very fine-grained limestone, undoubtedly from the quarry at Tura or its neighbour Massara. The quarries are located 20 km south of Cairo on the right (east) bank of the Nile. From the earliest periods of the Old Kingdom until the end of the Pharaonic period, these quarries were considered to be the finest limestone quarries. Both the finest limestone statues and the facing blocks for the funerary temple of Queen Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahari were made of stone from these quarries. The technique used is that of incised high relief, and its finish is painted with a palette of pigments diluted in water and a small proportion of gum arabic (resin from the acacia nilotica).