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Tutankhamun wearing the blue crown
Late Dynasty 18, reign of Tutankhamun, ca. 1336-1327 B.C.
Indurated limestone, h. 5 7/8 in.
Rogers Fund, 1950
50.6

This head is a fragment from a statue group that represented the god Amun, seated on a throne, and Tutankhamun (TOOT-ahnk-ah-mun) standing or kneeling in front of him, king and god facing in the same direction. The king's figure was considerably smaller than that of the god, indicating his subordinate status in the presence of the deity. All that remains of Amun is his right hand, which touches the back of the king's crown in a gesture that signifies Tutankhamun's investiture as king. During coronation rituals various types of crowns were put on the king's head. The type represented here--probably a leather helmet with metal disks sewn onto it--was generally painted blue, hence the Egyptologist's term "blue crown." The ancient name was khepresh.

The statue group this fragment comes from must have been commissioned when Egypt returned to the worship of the traditional gods after the death of Akhenaten. Tutankhamun, whose name during the Amarna era had been Tutankhaten--the living (ankh) image (tut) of Aten--must have been educated in the sole worship of the Aten (sun disk, light), but he headed the return to orthodoxy. Since representations of deities had been widely destroyed during the Amarna period, it became necessary to dedicate a host of new deity statues in the temples of Egypt when the country returned to its old gods. The extremely hard "indurated" limestone was among the favorite materials for such statues.

Statue groups showing a king together with gods had been created since the Old Kingdom (visitors to the Museum can also see the group of King Sahure, acc. no. 18.2.4), and formal groups relating to the pharaoh's coronation were dedicated at Karnak by Queen Hatshepsut and other kings of the Eighteenth Dynasty. The Metropolitan's head of Tutankhamun with the hand of Amun is special because of the intimacy with which the subject is treated. The face of the king expresses a touching youthful earnestness, and the hand of the god is raised toward his crown with gentle care. Images as charged with sentiment as this were possible only under the influence of the art of the Amarna period.

Notice: crown, partial elements

Discuss: subject, meaning, function

Compare: Akhenaten sacrificing a duck and West wall from a chapel built by Sety I for his father, Ramesses I (detail)

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