The portly profile of the king identifies this as a work from late in the reign of Amenhotep III. The back pillar is in the form of a djed-pillar, a hieroglyph symbolizing stability. The inscriptions associate the king with the Theban god Amun-Re and it has been suggested that this statuette was dedicated as part of Amenhotep's third Heb-Sed, a rejuvenation ceremony celebrated in year 37 of his reign.
The king wears a shawl draped over his left arm and a fringed tunic beneath. Innovatively, the sleevelike piece of the tunic that hangs over the right arm has been pleated. This detail represents the beginning of a trend that would become universally accepted during the reign of Akhenaten (ca. 1349–1332 B.C.) and continue long after.
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Artwork Details
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Title:Standing figure of Amenhotep III
Period:New Kingdom
Dynasty:Dynasty 18
Reign:reign of Amenhotep III
Date:ca. 1390–1352 B.C.
Geography:From Egypt
Medium:Chlorite schist
Dimensions:H. 22.2 (8 3/4 in.n); W. 8.6 (3 3/8 in.); D. 10.6 cm (4 3/16 in.)
Credit Line:Theodore M. Davis Collection, Bequest of Theodore M. Davis, 1915
Accession Number:30.8.74
Formerly Theodore M. Davis Collection. Bequeathed to the Museum by Davis, 1915; accessioned, 1930.
Williams, Caroline Ransom 1930. "Two Egyptian Torsos from the Main Temple of the Sun at El ʿAmarneh." In Metropolitan Museum Studies, 3/1, p. 91, footnote 62.
Lansing, Ambrose 1931. "The Theodore M. Davis Bequest: The Objects of Egyptian Art." In The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, vol. 26, no. 3, part 2 (March), p. 7, fig. 10.
Scott, Nora E. 1946. Egyptian Statuettes. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, fig. 23.
Hornemann, Bodil 1951. Types of Ancient Egyptian Statuary (Copenhagen, 1951-1969). pl. 261.
Aldred, Cyril 1957. "Hair Styles and History." In The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, new ser., vol. 15, no. 6 (February), p. 146.
Vandier, Jacques 1958. Manuel d'archéologie égyptienne: Les grandes époques: La statuaire, 3. Paris, 322, 324, 327, 349, pl. 56.
Hayes, William C. 1959. Scepter of Egypt II: A Background for the Study of the Egyptian Antiquities in the Metropolitan Museum of Art: The Hyksos Period and the New Kingdom (1675-1080 B.C.). Cambridge, Mass.: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, p. 237, fig. 142.
Bothmer, Bernard V., Hans Wolfgang Müller, and Herman De Meulenaere 1960. Egyptian Sculpture of the Late Period, 700 B.C. to A.D. 100. Brooklyn, p. 84.
Fischer, Henry G. 1977. The Orientation of Hieroglyphs, Egyptian Studies, 2. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 30, n. 83.
Metropolitan Museum of Art 1977. Ancient Egypt in the Metropolitan Museum Journal, 1–11. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, p. 145, n. 10.
Kozloff, Arielle P., Betsy Bryan, and Lawrence Michael Berman 1992. Egypt's Dazzling Sun: Amenhotep III and his World. Cleveland: Indiana University Press, no. 23, pp. 204-206 (B. Bryan).
Albersmeier, Sabine 2002. Untersuchungen zu den Frauenstatuen des Ptolemäischen Ägypten. Mainz am Rhein, p. 10f. n. 50.
Eaton-Krauss, Marianne 2015. "The Original Owner of Egyptian Museum, Cairo JE 46600." In The Art and Culture of Ancient Egypt: Studies in Honor of Dorothea Arnold, edited by Adela Oppenheim and Ogden Goelet. Bulletin of the Egyptological Seminar, vol. 19, p. 230 and n46.
Saretta, Phyllis 2015. "Of Lyres, Lions, Light, and Everything New Under the Sun: An Amarna Relief in The Metropolitan Museum of Art." In The Art and Culture of Ancient Egypt: Studies in Honor of Dorothea Arnold, edited by Adela Oppenheim and Ogden Goelet. Bulletin of the Egyptological Seminar, vol. 19, p. 558 n6.
Thompson, Kristin and Marsha Hill 2024. Statuary from Royal Buildings at Amarna: Its Creation and Contexts. London, p. 538 n6.
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