Kneeling official

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The number of examples of nonroyal statuettes in poses and stances typical for use in burials diminishes greatly in the New Kingdom, reflecting a general shift in funerary practices away from the deposition of statuary in tombs and toward placement in temples. This figure is the earliest metal statuette of a nonroyal man that can be ascribed to a shrine or temple provenance because of its ritual worshipping pose. It is datable to the late Nineteenth or Twentieth Dynasty based on the style of the official's hair and garments as well as the style of his face, which shows no influences of the earlier Amarna period. The statuette's open core cavity, without core supports, and its long, irregularly shaped tangs (not visible when the figure is displayed) also support such a date.

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