Sphinx of Hatshepsut

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The reconstructed sections of this sphinx have been cast from an almost identical, but more complete companion piece now in Cairo. The two small limestone sphinxes may have been on either side of the entrance to the upper terrace of Hatshepsut’s mortuary temple at Deir el-Bahri. The head of this sphinx differs markedly from Hatshepsut’s large sphinxes in which the human head wears the royal nemes-headcloth (see 31.3.166 and 31.3.167). Instead, this example was fashioned according to a type of sphinx bet known from the Middle Kingdom during the reign of Amenemhat III (ca. 1859-1813 B.C.). In this sphinx, the only human element is the face which is surrounded by a lion's mane. Remains of pigment show that the face was painted yellow, the color used for women in Egyptian Art.

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