Hatshepsut in a Devotional Attitude

Inna Novoseltseva

ARTD.1010 F11

Brooklyn College Fall 2015

Joseph Henry

10/02/2015

                                Hatshepsut in a Devotional Attitude

In the Ancient Egyptian world, there lived a most famous female figure, Hatshepsut. Hatshepsut lived a very successful life as one of Egypt’s female Pharaohs. This woman surpassed her spouse as the Pharaoh, and acted on the behalf of her step son, Thutmose III.   She kept doing specific developments so that her name will always be recalled in a positive way in Egyptian history. With her progression in architecture, trade relations, and global control of the kingdom, Hatshepsut did more than any Pharaohs could have possibly thought of.

One of a pair, this statue mounted on the left hand side of one of two granite entranceways in Hatshepsut's temple, either the one that designed to form the entrance to the higher court or the other that led into the main sanctum of the god Amun. The accompaniments of this statue, once located to the right of the same entrance, is in the Egyptian Museum, Cario. The devotion gesture of the two hands resting smooth on the front of the kilt was used first in stone sculpture under Middle Kingdom Pharaoh Senwosret III, who dedicated minimum six sculptures of this kind to the asylum of Mantuhotep II just south of Hatshepsut's monument.

The vertical Statue of Hatshepsut is defined as a work of art from the New Kingdom, made during the dynasty 18, between 1503 and 1482 B.C

Initially looking at this immense sculpture, the first realization that comes to mind is the obvious appearance of cracks. The largest crack is located on her upper right arm and it extends across her chest. A closer look shows that the cracks are located at multiple points; her elbow, the base of her wrist, her knuckles, and throughout her legs. A second observation brings attention to her head; the beard indicating that Hatshepsut was a Pharaoh is perfectly intact however the “Uraeus Cobra” (Kleiner, 68) is missing in addition to her nose.

The New York figure is missing only the end of the nose; even the Uraeus is almost undamaged. As with the large kneeling statues, the limbs are massive and the volumes simplified. The expression is broad across the brow, with a thin chin. The features are, however, rather finely drawn for such a large-scale figure, and the mouth appears to be smiling slightly.

The right corner of what seems to be her skirt or kilt is also missing. Additional interesting part of statue of Hatshepsut is her feet. They are smooth stone and have no traces of being made of granite. Feet of statue of Hatshepsut are different because her feet are reconstructed. Hatshepsut’s original feet were not recovered by archeologists. The supervisor at the museum clarified that the cracks were present because this piece was not found complete. It was actually found in pieces and put back together like a puzzle; hence the presence of the serious cracks. As stated before, her feet were reconstructed. Looking at Hatshepsut at an angle from the right side, it is significant to notice also that this is not a free-standing sculpture; it is attached to a base or pedestal. But from the front it looks like she is a free standing sculpture; however, I think is not, because of the substantial between her legs. If we look at it, there is like a wall between her legs from where the sculpture was carved out.