Kushite kings wore distinctive regalia, including a cap crown, double uraei, and ram's-head amulets. On this kneeling king, the double uraei have been "corrected" to one, while the ram's-head amulets on the necklace and the king's name on his belt have been hammered out by a later Saite king. The cap crown with a falcon engraved in the back, the bandeau with streamers, and the diadem with many tiny uraei were left untouched.
The small bronze kneeling figure represents two aspects of Kushite Period art that are intensifications of tendencies already extant in the Third Intermediate Period. Provision of small bronze royal attendant statuary demonstrated an specially pious regard for the gods and their temples. And, stylistically, there was an inclination toward models from the past, particularly the Old Kingdom, a taste clearly visible in the broad shoulders and narrow waist of the small bronze.
The large gold ram's-head amulet 1989.281.98 is an actual example of the type that was worn on this king's neck cord.
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Artwork Details
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Title:Kushite Pharaoh
Period:Third Intermediate Period
Dynasty:Dynasty 25 (Kushite)
Date:ca. 713–664 B.C.
Geography:From Egypt and Sudan, Nubia
Medium:Bronze; gold leaf
Dimensions:h. 7.6 cm (3 in.); w. 3.2 cm (1 1/4 in); d. 3.6 cm (1 3/8 in)
Credit Line:Purchase, Lila Acheson Wallace Gift and Anne and John V. Hansen Egyptian Purchase Fund, 2002
Accession Number:2002.8
Christos Bastis Collection, New York, from 1975; exhibited as a loan to the Brooklyn Museum, 1975-1999, in the major traveling exhibition Africa in Antiquity (Brooklyn, Seattle, New Orleans, The Hague, Netherlands) 1978-1979, and in the exhibition Antiquities from the Christos G. Bastis Collection, Metropolitan Museum, 1987; sold at Sothebys, New York, December 1999; acquired by the Museum 2002 from Peter Sharrer, New York. Frequently published.
Brooklyn Museum and Steffen Wenig 1978. Africa in antiquity : the arts of ancient Nubia and the Sudan, 2 vols.. I. p. 33,: II. pp. 49, 53, 171, no. 82 ill..
Bianchi, Robert 1978. The Art Gallery, 22.2, p. 103.
Bianchi, Robert 1978. Apollo, 108, p. 153 fig. 1.
Bothmer, Bernard V. 1982. "The Significance of Nubian Art." In Apollo, 115.
von Bothmer, Dietrich, Pat Getz-Preziosi, Diana Buitron-Oliver, Andrew Oliver, and Bernard V. Bothmer 1987. Antiquities from the Collection of Christos G. Bastis: Catalogue of the Exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, November 20, 1987 to January 10, 1988. Mainz am Rhein: P. von Zabern, pp. 39-41.
Hill, Marsha 2004. Royal Bronze Statuary from Ancient Egypt with Special Attention to the Kneeling Pose. Leiden: Brill, cat. 243 and K-6, pl. 35; pp. 51-74 passim, 226.
Bothmer, Bernard V. 2004. "The Significance of Nubian Art (reprint of 1982 Apollo 115 article)." In Egyptian Art: Selected Writings of Bernard V. Bothmer, pp. 359-360, fig. 24.7.
Hill, Marsha and Deborah Schorsch 2005. "The Gulbenkian Torso of King Pedubaste: Investigations into Egyptian Large Bronze Statuary." In Metropolitan Museum Journal, 40, c.f. p. 191, n.88.
Hill, Marsha and Deborah Schorsch 2007. Gifts for the Gods: Images from Egyptian Temples. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, cat. 24, fig. 66; pp. 51, 91, 156, 197, 205.
Hill, Marsha 2007. "Heights of Artistry: The Third Intermediate Period (ca. 1070–664 B.C.)." In Gifts for the Gods: Images from Egyptian Temples, edited by Marsha Hill and Deborah Schorsch. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, p. 51, no. 24.
Hill, Marsha 2007. "Lives of the Statuary." In Gifts for the Gods: Images from Egyptian Temples, edited by Marsha Hill and Deborah Schorsch. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, pp. 156–57, fig. 66, no. 24.
Schorsch, Deborah 2007. "The Manufacture of Metal Statuary: "Seeing the Workshops of the Temple." In Gifts for the Gods: Images from Egyptian Temples, edited by Marsha Hill and Deborah Schorsch. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, p. 197, no. 24.
Hill, Marsha and Deborah Schorsch 2008. Offrandes aux Dieux d'Egypte. Martigny, Switzerland: Fondation Pierre Gianadda Martigny, cat. 24, fig. 66; pp. 51, 91, 156, 197, 246.
Schorsch, Deborah 2019. "Ritual Metal Statuary in Ancient Egypt: "A Long Life and a Great Good Age." In Statues in Context: Production, meaning and (re)uses, edited by Aurelia Masson-Berghoff. Leuven: Peeters, pp. 252-53, figs. 1–2a, b; p. 264.
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