Artist's Gridded Sketch of Senenmut

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This gridded sketch of a man wearing a short wig undoubtedly depicts Senenmut, one of Hatshepsut's most valued officials. His appointment to a large number of important offices, such as steward of the god Amun at Karnak, enabled him to afford the excavation of an elaborate funerary complex consisting of an offering chapel (TT 71) and a tomb (TT 353) not far from Hatshepsut's temple at Deir el-Bahri in western Thebes. He also created a tomb for his mother, Hatnefer (36.3.1), and other family members on the hillside below. This limestone chip, called an ostracon, was found in debris on the hillside just below Senenmut's offering chapel on Sheikh abd el-Qurna hill. The profile is quite similar to a drawing in Senenmut's tomb at Deir el-Bahri (fig. 1). It also resembles drawings on another ostracon in the Museum's collection (31.4.2).

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