Ceiling Painting from the Tomb Chapel of Senenmut

Ceiling Painting from the Tomb Chapel of Senenmut

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

During the 1922–1923 excavation season, members of the Museum's Egyptian Expedition began work in the tomb chapel of Senenmut, one of Hatshepsut's best-known officials. The chapel had been carved into a layer of very poor quality limestone on the northeast slope of Sheikh Abd el-Qurna hill in Western Thebes and portions of the ceiling had caved in, including thick layers of painted plaster. Senenmut's offering chapel consisted of two rooms forming a T. The chapel faces almost due east and the entrance leads into a broad, transverse hall extending to the right and left (north/south). The long axial hall extends straight ahead (west). The ceilings of these two rooms were painted with a variety of geometric patterns and bands of text recording offering prayers and the name and titles of Senenmut. At the end of the excavation season, the Museum was awarded several pieces of the painted ceiling plaster. This fragment came from the south side of the transverse hall (the first room).

Egyptian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Ceiling Painting from the Tomb Chapel of SenenmutCeiling Painting from the Tomb Chapel of SenenmutCeiling Painting from the Tomb Chapel of SenenmutCeiling Painting from the Tomb Chapel of SenenmutCeiling Painting from the Tomb Chapel of Senenmut

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.