Princess Sebeknakht Nursing

This statuette, fashioned from an arsenical copper alloy, portrays the noblewoman and princess Sebeknakht in the intimate act of nursing her infant son.

Adorned with a diadem crowned by a regal uraeus, she is gracefully depicted in a crouched position, her left arm and bent knee tenderly supporting the child as he feeds. The infant, likewise crowned with a uraeus, is nestled close to his mother. An inscription upon the base declares, “The noblewoman Sebeknakht”.

This piece is remarkable not only as an early example of cupreous craftsmanship but also for its rare and evocative depiction of a royal woman in an unguarded, informal pose—nurturing her naked child herself rather than entrusting him to a wet nurse.

The royal daughter Sobeknakht is absent from other historical records, her existence known solely through this statuette. Copper sculptures of this nature were particularly prominent during the reign of Amenemhat III and into the early 13th Dynasty, after which political unrest rendered such artistic endeavours increasingly rare.

It is therefore surmised that Sobeknakht was the daughter of an unidentified sovereign of this epoch and the mother of an obscure prince. This lineage suggests that her husband, too, may have held royal status. Nevertheless, the statuette’s symbolism and narrative are open to alternative interpretations.

Dating from the Middle Kingdom to the Second Intermediate Period (c. 1749–1677 B.C.), the provenance of this piece remains unknown. It was acquired by the Brooklyn Museum via the Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund