Seated figure of Isis suckling Harpocrates (identifiable with the so-called ‘Isis lactans’ motif). The goddess is wearing a hathoric crown, consisting of a solar disc with horns resting on a stylised uraeiform modius. She is wearing a tripartite wig decorated with incised vertical streaks and with a stylised vulture headdress. The goddess is wearing an...
This magnificent red-granite lion, carved in the reign of Amenhotep III, shows the animal in a graceful recumbent pose, forepaws crossed and tail curled neatly around the rump. Its modelling is a masterful blend of stylised elegance and striking naturalism: a circular mane frames the head; raised fur textures mark the chest and shoulders; the...
Beneath the quiet lights of the Brooklyn Museum rests the head of a tomb statue, carved in limestone and once painted in warm honey-brown tones: a complexion both lifelike and luminous, as though the gentleman had only just stepped out of Egypt’s Old Kingdom sun. His wig, fashioned in the familiar tiered “helmet” style of...
In the long reign of Ramesses II (between 1279 and 1213 B.C.), devotion could be as grand as a temple façade or as humble as a handheld shrine. This charming fragment, now housed in The Met (90.6.1), once formed part of a larger votive statue crafted by an official of the king. In Ancient Egypt,...
This colossal statue of Ramesses II, also known as the illustrious Ramesses the Great (c. 1279–1213 B.C.), is hewn from radiant red granite quarried at Aswan. It was unearthed in 1820 by the Italian explorer Giovanni Battista Caviglia at Mit Rahina, ancient Memphis, where it once stood proudly on the southern flank of the Temple...
Thutmose’s workshop was discovered in early December 1912 by a German archaeological expedition led by Ludwig Borchardt. The workshop was located in what is now known as Amarna, previously called Akhetaten, the then new capital established by Akhenaten. The workshop was identified as belonging to Thutmose due to an ivory horse blinker found in a...
Carved from luminous Parian marble, this statue embodies the elegant fusion of Egyptian and Roman divinity: Hermanubis, the jackal-headed Anubis recast in the guise of Mercury. Fashioned in the 1st–2nd centuries A.D., the figure rises a modest 1.55 metres, yet commands attention. A slender solar disc poised on a crescent moon nestles between alert ears,...
The Seated Statue of the Steward Sehetepibreankh is a notable example of Middle Kingdom Egyptian sculpture, dating to approximately 1919–1885 B.C. during the reign of Amenemhat II. This limestone statue was excavated in 1923–24 from Pit 6L.P19 in the tomb of Sehetepibreankh at Lisht South, located in the Memphite region of Egypt. The statue exemplifies...
Among the many sculptural treasures of Ancient Egypt, few are as quietly evocative as the statues known as the “Bald One of Hathor”. These figures, though not divine themselves, were profoundly entwined with the sacred world of temple ritual and devotion. Most often depicted as shaven-headed men in attitudes of piety or offering, they represent...
At an imposing height of nearly 2.35 metres (8 feet), this magnificent travertine (Egyptian Alabaster) statue depicts king Menkaure, the illustrious builder of the smallest Pyramid at Giza, seated in a pose of serene dignity and regal authority. Unearthed in 1909 by the Harvard University–Boston Museum of Fine Arts Expedition from the ruins of Menkaure’s...
