Large Kneeling Statue of Hatshepsut

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This over life-size kneeling statue and two others in the collection (30.3.1 and 29.3.1) were made to flank the processional pathway along the axis of Hatshepsut's temple at Deir el-Bahri. They depict Hatshepsut as the ideal Egyptian king - a young man in the prime of life. Each statue has an inscription that includes her personal name, Hatshepsut (literally foremost of noblewomen) and/or a feminine pronoun or verb form, so the masculine garb and physique were not intended to trick people into thinking that she was a man. Although traditionally the Egyptian throne passed from father to son, when the necessity arose, a female ruler was accepted. However, the trappings and symbolism associated with kingship were overwhelmingly masculine and the sculptors of this statue were following a tradition that extended back more than fifteen hundred years. In this tradition, the public image of the king, whether he was an infant, a frail old man or, in this case, a woman, was shown in the most powerful and imposing form – a young, vigorous man, or a human-headed lion-bodied sphinx (31.3.166). In this statue, Hatshepsut wears the nemes-headcloth, false beard, and shendyt-kilt that are part of the standard regalia of the king. On her chest she also wears the same enigmatic amulet suspended on a necklace of tubular beads that is represented on one of the statues representing Hatshepsut as a woman (30.3.3).

Egyptian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Met collection of ancient Egyptian art consists of approximately 30,000 objects of artistic, historical, and cultural importance, dating from about 300,000 BCE to the 4th century CE. A signifcant percentage of the collection is derived from the Museum's three decades of archaeological work in Egypt, initiated in 1906 in response to increasing interest in the culture of ancient Egypt.

Metropolitan Museum of Art