The instantly recognizable image of the ruler spread throughout the new empire in Nubia, from Aniba to Gebel Barkal, by means of the expanded artisan efforts referred to already. A seated dark granite image of Thutmose III in the jubilee robe was left at
Figure 40.5 Seated statue of Amenhotep III. Granodiorite. Kom el-Heitan. British Museum EA 4. Courtesy Trustees of the British Museum.
Gebel Barkal, while an image of Hatshepsut was left at Sai Island near her Ahmosid ancestors’s images. (PM 1951: 165) More interesting, perhaps, is the amount of royal and elite sculpture found at these Nubian temples and fortresses, attesting to the presence of Egyptian officials and more significantly, to the wide distribution of the newly emerged Thutmosid model already in the reign of Hatshepsut. The block and seated statues found in Nubia were made of Egyptian stones in a number of cases - limestone and Aswan granodiorite - and attest to the desire to export the new hegemonic power’s image into the territory. Hatshepsut’s face on the limestone statue of Nubian prince Ruiu (Leipzig 6020) and on the granodiorite image of his son Amenemhet (University Museum E 10980) was certain evidence of these local chieftains’ loyalty to that ruler and likewise sent her renown (her biw) to Aniba and Buhen through the depictions (Roehrig 2005b: catalogue entries 27-8). Whether the sculptures were carved in Nubia or Egypt is unimportant, since the materials themselves were typically Egyptian, as was the technical craftsmanship.
The ability of the Egyptian state to export the depiction of its powerful, youthful, and divine rulers may have contributed to the maintenance of the Thutmosid model over nearly a century, aided most significantly by Thutmose III’s constant construction in the Nile Valley and beyond (Vandersleyen 1982). The militarily active series of rulers apparently found the nearly sweet smiling facial features to be an effective image, and by the end of the reign of Hatshepsut they were combined with more masculine body types that persisted through the reign of Amenhotep II. Only after the southern and northern borders had been sealed by treaty and diplomatic marriages did the dominance of the Thutmosid type begin to wane. The two-dimensional art of Amenhotep II began to vary, sometimes representing a large and obliquely set almond-shaped eye and a ‘‘dishpan’’ facial profile that lacked a brow line. In statuary these features appeared in the reign of Thutmose IV only to become in exaggerated form the hallmarks of Amenhotep Ill’s distinctive face. The idealization of the young smiling Thutmosid face was replaced with a set of features that was elaborated to convey the elegance and extravagance of courtly life: strongly angled eyes ovoid in shape reproduced the effects of eye cosmetics, a broad straight nose with barely perceptible root replaced the aquiline profile, thick upper and lower lips expressed sensuality without a smile, and a fleshy face softened the strength of the Thutmosid bone structure (Kozloff and Bryan 1992; figure 40.5).
World History
