Sphinx of Thutmose III

Sphinx of Thutmose III

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This finely executed representation of Thutmose III is made of extremely hard stone. The transition between the head of the king and the powerful feline body has been masked by the nemes headdress and the stylized lion's mane which forms a bib-like panel on the chest. A short column of inscription running down the chest identifies the king as "the Good God Menkheperre, beloved of [Amun]." The name of the god Amun was erased later in Dynasty 18 during the reign of Akhenaten, and was never restored. The Museum's Egyptian collection also includes sphinxes representing Thutmose's co-ruler Hatshsepsut (31.3.166), his son Amenhotep II (30.8.72), and his great grandson Amenhotep III (1972.125). In Egyptian art, the sphinx statue dates back to Dynasty 4 of the Old Kingdom, more than a thousand years before the time of Thutmose III. The most famous example is the great sphinx at Giza which represents Khafre who also built the second pyramid in about 2500 B.C. The earliest sphinx statue in the Museum's collection represents the Middle Kingdom pharaoh Senwosret III (17.9.2) who ruled about 1850 B.C.

Egyptian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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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.