Statue of Seated Imhotep

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Imhotep was the official who oversaw construction of Egypt's first monumental stone pyramid, at the beginning of the Third Dynasty (ca. 2650-2600 B.C.). The significance of this accomplishment made such an impression on the Egyptians that Imhotep was remembered and honored in later Egyptian history. Beginning in the New Kingdom he was invoked as the patron of writing and wisdom, and by the time this statue was made he had achieved fully divine status, with his own mythology and cult. Imhotep was also invoked for his intercession in sickness and infertility, and he was later equated by the Greeks with their own god of medicine, Asklepios. Imhotep is almost always depicted with short-cropped hair or a cap, seated and holding an open papyrus scroll. In this example the finely inlaid figure of the god is made separately from his elaborate chair and base. The chair is tall with a rounded back, its seat surrounded by an elaborate cavetto-like molding, and the legs below the seat joined by panels with vertical cutouts.

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