A Fragmentary Carrying Chair Scene in Salt Lake City, Utah

Abstract

In the collections of the Utah Museum of Fine Arts in Salt Lake City is a fragmentary limestone relief of a chair carrying scene. The relief fragment in Salt Lake City was a gift to the museum from Natacha Rambova (née Shaugnessy), a dancer, spiritualist, Hollywood costume and set designer, and one-time wife of Rudolph Valentino, who developed an interest in ancient Egypt. Such chair carrying scenes in the Old Kingdom are generally accompanied by a porters’ ditty, a so-called Sänftenlied. The fragmentary scene in Salt Lake City is unusual in substituting commands to the porters for the ditty.