Queen Hatshepsut as Hathor, Dyn. 18
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Links to other views:⇒ Larger View⇒ Right if scripting is off, click the ⇒ instead. Links to others from Dynasty 18Alabaster unguent jar, Dyn. 18Alabaster unguent vase, Dyn. 18 Amenhotep III as Amun-Min, Dyn 18 Amulet of Bes, Dyn. 18 Amulet of god Thoth as a Baboon, Dyn. 18 Anthropomorphic mirror handle, Dyn. 18 Basalt shawabti of a king, early Dyn. 18 Blue faience ring, udjat eye, Dyn. 18 Blue faience shawabti, Dyn.18 Bronze Horus sarcophagus, Dyn.18 Bronze insigna-pendant of Atum, Dyn. 18 Bronze of a king as Osiris, Dyn. 18 Bronze of Sakhmet seated, early Dyn. 18 Bronze statuette of Apis, Dyn. 18 Cartonnage of Princess Baket, Dyn. 18 Cartouche ring of Akhenaten, Dyn. 18 Carved face from a sarcophagus, Dyn. 18 Carved face from a sarcophagus, N.K. Copper inlay for a box, Dyn. 18 Divine scarab, reign of Thutmose IV Enameled feathers of Amun, Dyn. 18 Extensible bronze bracelet, Dyn. 18 Faience ear ornament, Dyn. 18 Foundation marker from Amenhotep III Funerary box (panel), Dyn. 18-33 Gilded ib, heart amulet, Dyn.18 Gilded mkrt, snake amulet, Dyn. 18 Gilded ‘tit’ (girdle of Isis) amulet, Dyn. 18 Granite cartouche of Akhenaten, Dyn. 18 Head, realistic portrait in stone, Dyn 18 Horus-the-Child as a ruling king, Dyn. 18 Ibis-headed Thoth with human body, Dyn.18 King Amenhotep II (?) as Amun-Re, Dyn. 18 King Horemheb as a sphinx, Dyn. 18 King Horemheb as Amun-Re, Dyn. 18 King wearing the royal headdress, Dyn. 18 Limestone shawabti, early Dyn. 18 Lotus necklace terminal, Egypt, Dyn. 18 Monumental bronze feather, Dyn. 18 Mummy mask of a young woman, Dyn. 18 Nekhbet, vulture-goddess of Nekheb New Year’s flask for sacred water, Dyn.18 Osiris, King of the Afterlife, Dyn. 18 Osiris of an unknown king, Dyn. 18 (?) Osiris-Neper, god of agriculture, Dyn. 18 Pair of udjat eyes of Horus, Dyn. 18 Palm leaf amulet, Dyn. 18-19 Palm leaf amulet, Dyn. 18-19 Pillar capital, Hathor, Dyn. 18 Polychrome glass cup, Dyn 18 Queen as Goddess Mut, Dyn.18 Queen Hatshepsut as Goddess Mut, Dyn. 18 Queen Isis as Isis nursing Thutmose III Royal situla, sacred water vessel, Dyn.18 Royal wooden sarcophagus lid, Dyn. 18 Sakhmet amulet pendant, Dyn. 18 Sarcophagus of a king, Dyn. 18 Sarcophagus of a queen, Dyn. 18 Scarab “begets the existence of Amun” Scarab of protection, Dyn. 18 Scarab of Thutmose III, Dyn. 18 Scarab of Thutmose III, Dyn. 18 Scarab of Thutmose III, Dyn. 18 Scarab of Thutmose III, Dyn. 18 Scarab of Thutmose III, Dyn. 18 Scarab of Thutmose III, Dyn. 18 Scarab of Thutmose III, Dyn. 18 Scarab of Thutmose III, Dyn. 18 Scarab of Thutmose III, Dyn. 18 Scarab of Thutmose III, Dyn. 18 Scarab with Amun-Re, solar discs, Dyn. 18 Scarab with ‘Ba’, Dyn. 18 Scarab with “faith in Justice,” Dyn. 18 Scarab with Goddess Hathor Scarab with Horus of the Horizon, Dyn. 18 Scarab with ‘nsw-bity’, Dyn. 18 Scarab with ‘sa’ singing birds, Dyn. 18 Shawabti of Amen, vizier of Amenhotep III Shawabti of Queen Mutemwia. Dyn.18 Signet-ring of Tutankhamun, Dyn. 18 Statuette of a privileged man, Dyn. 18 Stone bust of a scribe, Dyn. 18 Stone shawabti of a Nubian viceroy, Dyn. 18 Stone statue of King Thutmose III, Dyn. 18 Two cobras from the queen’s crown Udjat eye amulet-pendant, Dyn. 18 Uninscribed wooden shawabti, Dyn. 18 Uraeus from a royal crown, Dyn. 18 Wood statue of King Smenkhkare, Dyn. 18 Wooden sarcophagus lid, Dyn. 18 Wooden sarcophagus lid, Dyn.18 Wooden sarcophagus lid, Dyn. 18 Links to others representing HathorPillar capital, Hathor, Dyn. 18Scarab with Goddess Hathor Scarab with Goddess Hathor, 1070-656 BC Links to others of type Statuette-womanBronze female dancer, Rome, 200-27 BCBronze goddess Neith, Ptolemaic Period Bronze of a queen nursing, Dyn. 25 Bronze of Ceres, Rome, 200 BC-307 AD Bronze of Goddess Nebethetepet, Dyn. 12 Bronze of Mut, Ptolemaic Period Bronze Venus, Alexandria, 50 BC-50 AD Etruscan young woman, 570-550 BC Gilded statue of a queen, Early Dynastic Hathor as a woman, cow headed, N.K. Protodynastic female statuette, Dyn. 0 Queen Aqaluqa as Isis nursing, Dyn. 25 Queen as Goddess Mut, Dyn.18 Queen as Isis nursing, Dyn. 12 Queen as Isis nursing, Dyn. 25 Queen as Isis-Hathor nursing, Dyn. 21 Queen Hatshepsut as Goddess Mut, Dyn. 18 Queen Isis as Isis nursing Thutmose III Queen Isitnefret as Isis nursing, Dyn. 19 Queen Karama as Goddess Neith, Dyn. 22 Terracotta young woman, Greece, 450 BC Victory and Athena, terracotta, Greece Woman and girl, Tanagra, 340-300 BC Woman with elaborate headdress, Crete |
This remarkable portrait of Hatshepsut, ‘Beloved of Ra’, wearing the horns of Hathor and the sun disc atop her mortar crown, is all we have left of a bronze statue of the extraordinary queen-king of Dynasty 18. It is the exquisite femininity of this sculpture that makes it so exceptional. “Sometimes, but extremely rarely, Queen Hatshepsut was portrayed not only with the fine facial features of a woman, but as a woman. In New Kingdom Art in Ancient Egypt, Aldred suggests that such statues were not exhibited, but rather meant to be sheltered in a naos [the most sacred part of a temple, where the emblem of the god is kept]” (Vandier, 1958). In the Egyptian belief system, the living king and the living queen are embodiments of gods and goddesses. Yet they are, at the same time, ruling under their own names. The cow horns and solar disk emblems of Goddess Hathor are juxtaposed to the mortar-crown of queens of Egypt with its 12 cobras-uraei, itself juxtaposed with Hatshepsut’s royal name (Maat-ka-ra) displayed as a symbolic riddle. The cobra on her forehead (Maat), with its unusual horns of Hathor (Ka) and solar disk (Ra) display Queen Hatshepsut’s Name of Horus (Maat-Ka-Ra) as a riddle, as Egyptians were fond of doing—this time using the cobra instead of the feather to represent the word Maat. “The same riddle appears repeatedly at her great funerary temple of Deir-el-Bahari” (Khalil 1976). This bronze statuette bears striking similarities with several known representations of Hatshepsut, such as the 6’5” high seated statue of Hatshepsut wearing a nemes at the Metropolitan Museum, the paint on sandstone ‘statue of Hatshepsut and Senynefer’ at the Louvre under # E 27161, and the ‘Sphinx of Hatshepsut’ # JE 53113 at Deir el-Bahri funerary temple, where her face appears small and delicately female. Hatshepsut Princess Hatshepsut, daughter of King Thotmes I and of Great Royal Spouse Aahmes II, became Great Royal Spouse of Thotmes II around 1518 BC. She gave him three children of her own (Royal Princess Neferw-Ra, Royal Princess Merit-Ra, and Royal Princess Maut-Nofret), and served as de-facto stepmother to his only son, born from a Lady of the Royal Harem named Isis. At the death of King Thotmes II, no one--not even his own son--could legitimately become king without wedding either a royal princess or the queen. But Queen Hatshepsut was apparently not interested in remarrying. So, until it was known who would wed her daughter the Royal Princess, Queen Hatshepsut “temporarily” headed the state. In the second year of her temporary role, Queen Hatshepsut briskly took over unlimited and unrestricted powers. With the approval of Hapwseneb, the Great Priest of Amen, Queen Hatshepsut was crowned King of Egypt in the Maat temple at Karnak and was given a full titulary, starting with the Horus Name Maat-Ka-Ra (“Maat is the Ka of Ra”). This coup d’état was legitimized by a strange disclosure made to Hapwseneb about a secret co-regency having existed between Hatshepsut and her father Thotmes I, prior to her wedding with Thotmes II. Whether this story of a co-regency with her father was a retroactive fabrication or not, it was a very thorough setup. Queen Hatshepsut initiated and maintained all her life an official divine cult of Thotmes I. She closed his royal tomb and transferred her father’s mummy to her sumptuous funerary temple, where she set up an inner funerary temple to the cult and glory of her father. After the death of her elder daughter Royal Princess Neferw-Ra, Queen-King Hatshepsut assured her succession by marrying her step-son to her second daughter, and appointing him as her powerless symbolic co-regent. Princess Merit-Ra became the Great Royal Spouse Merit-Ra Hatshepsut II (Gauthier 1912:[2]270). Hatshepsut ruled alone 22 years, surrounded by wise counselors headed by Senmout, her steward, tutor, spokesman, architect, and vizier. Hatshepsut’s leadership made for a peaceful reign, with little political opposition, and the support of her people. She brought prosperity to the nation, fostered quality and refinement in the arts, innovation in architecture, and presided over the embellishment of Karnak. All the while, she upheld Egypt’s prestige, influence and leadership abroad. Her reign was a harmonious and peaceful pause to a long succession of warrior kings. Bibliography (for this item)Aubert, Jacques-F., and Liliane Aubert1974 Statuettes égyptiennes: chaouabtis, ouchebtis. Librairie d’Amerique et d’ Orient, Paris, France. ( 24-25:fig.10 seated statue of Hatshepsut, red granite, Metropolitan, N.Y) Bard, Kathryn A., and Steven B. Shubert 1999 Encyclopedia of the Archeology of Ancient Egypt. Routledge, London, United Kingdom. Budge, E. A. Wallis, Sir 1969 The Gods of the Egyptians or studies in Egyptian Mythology (unabridged republication of the 1904 edition by the Open Court Publishing Company). Dover Publications, New York, NY. Clayton, Peter A. 1994 Chronicle of the Pharaohs: The Reign-by-Reign Record of the Rulers and Dynasties of Ancient Egypt. Thames and Hudson, London, UK. Desroches Noblecourt, Christiane 2002 La Reine Mystérieuse: Hatshepsout. Pygmalion, Paris, France. (12 : portrait (Metropolitan)) Desroches-Noblecourt, Christiane 1996 RAMSES II , La Véritable Histoire. Editions Pygmalion, Paris. (58 : portrait (Metropolitan)) Eydoux, Henri-Paul 1964 Les grandes dames de l’archéologie. Plon, Paris, France. Gauthier, Henri 1912 Le livre des rois d’Egypte. Tome 2: de la XIIIe à la fin de la XVIIIe dynastie. Institut Français d’Archeologie Orientale, Cairo, Egypt. ((II) 270) Grimal, Nicolas 1988 Histoire de l’Egypte ancienne. Fayard, Paris, France. Ions, Veronica 1969 Mythologie Egyptienne (Translation of the 1968 edition by the Hamlyn Publishing Group). ODEGE, Paris, France. Khalil, Hassan M. 1976 Preliminary Studies on the Sanusret Collection. Manuscript, Musée l’Egypte et le Monde Antique, Monaco-Ville, Monaco. (G.I.A. # E) Matouk, Fouad S. 1971 Corpus du scarabé égyptien. Tome 1: Les scarabés royaux. Fouad Matouk, Beyrut, Lebanon. (184, scarabs # 296,298) Robins, Gay 1993 Women in Ancient Egypt. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA. (48-49) Russmann, Edna R. 2001 Eternal Egypt: Masterworks of Ancient Art from the British Museum. University of California Press, Berkeley. Tiradritti, Francesco 1998 Egyptian Treasures from the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. White Star Publishers, Vercelli, Italy. Vandier, J 1958 Manuel d’Archeologie Egyptienne. Tome III: Les grandes époques—la statuaire. A. et J. Picard, Paris, France. Ziegler, Christiane 1997 The Louvre: Egyptian Antiquities (Reprint of 1990 edition). Edition Scala, Paris, France. Bibliography (on Hatshepsut )Gauthier, Henri1912 Le livre des rois d’Egypte. Tome 2: de la XIIIe à la fin de la XVIIIe dynastie. Institut Français d’Archeologie Orientale, Cairo, Egypt. |
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