Head of Queen Hatshepsut (?)
c. 1479–1457 BCE
- Medium
- graywacke
- Classification
- Sculpture
- Dimensions
- Overall: 16.2 x 14.9 x 17.8 cm (6 3/8 x 5 7/8 x 7 in.)
- Culture
- Egypt, New Kingdom (1540–1069 BCE), Dynasty 18, reign of Hatshepsut (c. 1479–1458 BCE)
- Museum
- Cleveland Museum of Art, Egyptian and Ancient Near Eastern Art
- Credit line
- Gift of the John Huntington Art and Polytechnic Trust
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Teens profiles and older: its subject is for older viewers (war, death, the Passion, drink or the like). How works are placed
View at the Cleveland Museum of Art
About this work
Tuthmosis III was still a child when he came to the throne, so his stepmother and aunt, Hatshepsut, assumed the reins of government, first as regent, then as full-fledged king beside him. This beautiful head represents either Hatshepsut or Tuthmosis III, whose facial features are notoriously difficult to tell apart. They ruled together for 22 years, and presumably the same sculptors worked for them both. Very likely the sculptors themselves did not know whose statue they were working on until the final inscription was added.
