The reign of Amenhotep III is prominent for the production of statues and for the magnification of royal iconography; this era (c.1390-1352 bc) is known more for images of deities and colossal sculpture than for innovations in statue types. Life-sized stone statuary representing anthropomorphic, animal, and animal-headed deities was produced in large numbers, including the production of many hundreds of granodiorite Sekhmet (lion-headed goddess) statues (Kozloff and Bryan 1992;
Figure 40.8 Stelophorous statue of Neferperet. Granodiorite. Temple of Karnak. CG 42121. Courtesy Supreme Council of Antiquities.
Bryan 1997; Sourouzian and Stadelmann 2007; Sourouzian 2008). In addition many group images combined the ruler with major deities and thereby increased both the number of his divine associations and also his implied divine status. Likewise icono-graphic elements were added to royal images that suggested the king’s divinity, as, for example, a sun disc carved atop the nemes headdress on a granite statue of the king seated next to the goddess Maat (Bryan 1994). A small kneeling figure of the king wore a short round wig and double crown relating to the ‘‘royal’’ god Neferhotep (Kozloff and Bryan, 1992). Further association of the king with the gods was communicated through the inscriptions on the divine images that labeled them as ‘‘Amenhotep III beloved of X-god,’’ thereby blurring the distinction between the two. For example, the colossal quartzite baboon statues placed at Hermopolis for Amenhotep III wear pectorals decorated with the prenomen ofthe king and inscribed centrally with both cartouches of Amenhotep III, beloved of Thoth (Kozloff and Bryan 1992). So numerous were the life-sized and larger divine images made for this king that a programmatic use for the statuary is likely (figure 40.5). The mobility of statuary, as compared with temple wall decoration, allowed it to be utilized in multiple ritual settings, and, just as the king could be associated with a vast variety of gods, so the divine images of falcons, jackals, lions, etc., might be identified with a range of gods including, but not limited to, the one named.
Figure 40.9 Intermediary scribal statue of Amenhotep son of Hapu. Granodiorite. Temple of Karnak. JE 44862 = Luxor J4. Courtesy Supreme Council of Antiquities.
Iconography was further employed by Amenhotep III’s artisans to picture him as a lunar god, Nebmaatre, lord of Nubia whose cult center was shared with Amon-re at the temple of Soleb in modern Sudan. The deified form of Amenhotep III had an anthropomorphic iconography known from relief sculpture, and represented a king figure with nemes and a modius with lunar crescent atop. The only preserved statue form of this deity is a recumbent lion of granite whose head is turned at ninety degrees from the body in a newly created sphinx form (Helck, 1957; Kozloff and Bryan 1992). Around the pedestal an inscription identifies the lion as Amenhotep III’s ‘‘living image on earth, Nebmaatre, lord of Nubia, who resides within the fortress of Khaemmaat (Soleb),’’ and next to the lion an inscription names ‘‘the king of Upper and Lower Egypt Nebmaatre, given life like Ra; the vigorous lion, beloved of [Amun].’’ If we compare this label with the texts on the colossal baboons and other deity statues, it becomes all the more suggestive that the king was intended to be represented as the deity and vice versa. Thus a hallmark of the reign was the use of inscriptions and iconography as much as statue types, such as Osirids, to suggest the king’s divine status.
Non-royal elites during the reign of Amenhotep III continued to utilize a broad range of types in both tomb and temple settings, including scribal, block, offering, seated, and striding figures. As before, the face of the king’s officials carried his features in nearly every instance, although the highly influential Scribe and Overseer of Works Amenhotep, son of Hapu, also donated a scribal statue of himself with a wizened lined face recalling the features of late Dynasty Twelve rulers (Sourouzian 1991). As with Amenhotep III’s own statues, those of his most trusted elites were specified by the inscriptions to perform certain functions. Amenhotep, son of Hapu, the Steward Neferrenpet, and the Scribe of Recruits Men, for example, identified their statues as intermediaries between human petitioners and the gods; as such, these men enhanced their statuses in a fashion similar to the king’s own elevation, and the eventual deification of Amenhotep, son of Hapu, probably owed much to his petition statues that sat outside the Karnak Tenth Pylon gateway (Borchardt 1930; Kozloff and Bryan 1992) (figure 40.9).
Statues of royal family members also multiplied during the reign of Amenhotep III, and, in particular, striding queen and princess statues appear for the first time, along with standing images of daughters as part of royal family groups. The king’s principal wife and mother stand, left foot forward, beside his throne on the colossus of Memnon and its twin, and Tiyi appears again on the recently unearthed quartzite colossus from Kom Heitan (Sourouzian and Stadelmann 2004). A group statue of the king, probably a triad with Amenhotep and another female, includes a striding image of the ‘‘King’s Daughter’’ Isis wearing the side lock hairstyle but also bearing the title of ‘‘King’s Wife.’’ It is the combination of frequent representations of the royal women coupled with their active poses that presents a real innovation in the statuary of the period, and this had a strong impact on the remainder of the New Kingdom.
World History
