statues, obelisks, and other monuments. The courtyards could be covered with a roof or be open to the air and were separated by large gates we call pylons. In the end the Karnak temple had 10 pylons, not only in the usual sequence from east to west but also from north to south, connecting it to the Luxor temple
Figure 8.1 Amenhotep III commissioned numerous monuments of enormous size, including a mortuary temple in western Thebes that was built in the agricultural zone along the river, unlike those of others. Fronting the temple were two gigantic statues of the seated king (20 meters high), called the Colossi of Memnon in later tradition. This is the southern one, today standing in the midst of fields as the agricultural area was later reclaimed. Photo: Marc Van De Mieroop
Figure 8.2 Queen Tiye was represented numerous times, alone and with her husband Amenhotep III, which historians see as a sign that she played an important role at court. The 33‐cm‐high statue shown here, made of ebony wood and inlaid with gold, silver, lapis lazuli, and less precious materials, depicts an elaborate crown that contains the sun disk connected to the god Ra, cow horns connected to the goddess Hathor, and the double feathers connected to the god Amun. Originally it also had the uraeus attached to her forehead. Ägyptisches Museum und Papyrussammlung | Ägyptisches Museum, gift James Simon, 1918. Accession number: ÄM 21834. Source: Sandra Steiss/ Art Resource
Figure 8.3 The imagery carved on the walls of the Luxor temple in eastern Thebes indicates that it was a central location for the celebration of the Opet Festival in which the statues of the gods Amun, Mut, and Khonsu travelled from the Karnak temple to Luxor, in a ceremony to renew the king’s royal birth. The scenery shows that it involved a procession in which sacrifices were made to the temple, and the detail here shows how people brought a bull whose horns were decorated with the bust of a Nubian on top. Source: Werner Forman / Art Resource
Figure 8.4 Ramose, who was Egypt’s vizier under Amenhotep III and Akhenaten, had a lavish tomb in western Thebes, decorated with reliefs and paintings of the highest quality. He is shown here with his wife and guests sitting at the funerary banquet. Unusually, only the eyes are painted. Western Thebes TT 55. Source: Scala / Art Resource
Figure 8.5 Early in his reign Akhenaten set up colossal statues of himself at Karnak, which clearly show the (to us) startling features of Amarna artwork. This 3‐m‐high fragment of one, often called the “sexless colossus,” shows the king either naked or wrapped in a tight‐fitting cloak that shows the details of his body. The absence of genitalia has inspired much speculation, for example, that it represents the king as Osiris, whose genitalia were cut off, according to myth, or that the statue is of Nefertiti. Other aspects of the colossus, such as the face and the broad hips, are typical for Amarna art. Egyptian Museum Cairo JE 55938s. Source: Werner Forman / Art Resource
Figure 8.6 The extent of the building projects King Akhenaten commissioned made it necessary for the work to be done fast. The walls were made of mud brick lined with stone slabs that we call talatat (from the Arabic for three hand spans) onto which elaborate scenes were carved. The example here shows the king sacrificing a duck to the sun disk Aten, with the solar rays ending in hands (height 24.5 cm; width 54.5 cm; thickness 7 cm). One of those is holding the ankh sign, indicating life, before the king’s nose. The physical features of the head – long neck, nose, and chin, and thick lips – are characteristic for Amarna art. Metropolitan Museum of Art 1985.328.2. Source: Gift of Norbert Schimmel, 1985
Figure 8.7 King Tutankhamun’s tomb is famous for the incredible wealth of the goods that were excavated in it, many of them of precious materials and high craftsmanship. Shown here is an alabaster vessel finely carved so that its surface is translucent. It is 18.3 cm high and 28.3 cm wide. The hieroglyphic text includes the king’s cartouches. Egyptian Museum, Cairo, JE 67465. Source: Erich Lessing / Art Resource
Figure 9.1 One of the most important king lists preserved is the one carved for King Sety I and crown prince Rameses in the temple of Abydos. They are shown honoring 75 earlier kings of Egypt represented by their cartouches in two registers. The list omits certain rulers who were considered illegitimate at the time, such as Hatshepsut, the Amarna kings, and rulers of the Intermediate Periods. In the lowest register the cartouches of Sety I are repeated multiple times. Source: Erich Lessing / Art Resource
Figure 9.2 One of the most famous monuments of Rameses II is his temple at Abu Simbel, cut into the cliff of the Nile Valley. This shows the façade with four 21‐m‐high statues of the seated king and smaller ones of some members of the royal family, including several sons and daughters. Photo: Marc Van De Mieroop
Figure 9.3 During the New Kingdom, several Syrian cults entered Egypt, and the gods involved became depicted as Egyptian ones, albeit keeping some of their original attributes. This 30‐cm‐high limestone statue, from the Ramessid period or slightly later, shows the Syrian war god Resheph with the standard traits of a king in Egyptian art (crown, skirt, beard, stance) but brandishing a shield and the sword‐like mace that are normal parts of his representations in Syria. Metropolitan Museum of Art 89.2.215. Source: Gift of Joseph W. Drexel, 1889
Figure 9.4 Although Rameses II had multiple wives, queen Nefertari was his favorite and is often represented alongside him. Her tomb (QV 66) is the most elaborately decorated in the Valley of the Queens, with polychrome frescoes showing her in scenes such as this one where she makes offerings to a god. In the tomb’s inscriptions she is called “possessor of charm, sweetness, and love.” Source: Bridgeman‐Giraudon / Art Resource
Figure 9.5 A large number of objects found throughout Egypt are associated with the numerous children of Rameses II. This thin gold mask, only a tenth of a millimeter thick and 28 by 28 cm in extent, was found in the Serapeum at Saqqara on a mummy‐shaped mass of resin which also had jewelry with the name of Khaemwaset on it. It is thus often thought to represent the son of Rameses II who developed that burial ground of the Apis bulls. Louvre Museum, Paris N2291. Source: Erich Lessing / Art Resource
Figure 9.6 The remains of the village of Deir el‐Medina show how a community of workers were housed and supported by the state and how they interacted with each other in their professional and daily lives. The majority of the small houses were located within an enclosure wall, but at the height of its existence several additional ones were built around the core settlement. Source: Erich Lessing / Art Resource
Figure 9.7 Among the inhabitants of Deir el‐Medina were the artists who decorated the royal tombs with mortuary imagery that was very canonical. They were skilled draftsmen, however, and the ostraca found in the village show how they practiced their art with images that one does not find in the royal tombs. The example here, painted on a flake of limestone, measuring 18.5 by 11.5 cm, shows two bulls fighting each other with a vivacity that illustrates how they could work outside the rules of official art. Metropolitan Museum of Art 24.2.27. Source: Rogers Fund 1924
Figure 10.1 This 44.5‐cm‐high quartzite head, with traces of blue paint on the crown, belongs to a statue that still stands in the Amun temple at Thebes. The statue’s inscription shows that this is Sety II, whose kingship was contested, but who still had the ability to commission artwork of the highest standards. Metropolitan Museum of Art 34.2.2. Source: Rogers Fund 1934
Figure 10.2 Rameses III’s major monument was his mortuary temple at Medinet Habu, which tried to emulate his predecessor’s nearby Ramesseum. It is famous for its depictions of battles against the Sea Peoples (cf. Figure 10.4). Around the walls of the stone temple were a large number mud‐brick magazines, which were used to store supplies for the temple and for the workers at Deir el‐Medina. Source: robertharding / Alamy Stock Photo
Figure 10.3 The Papyrus Harris I, or the Great Harris Papyrus, was originally 42 meters long and describes in detail the donations King Rameses III made to gods from several temples of Egypt. Those of Thebes, Amun, Mut, and Khonsu, received the greatest share, and this vignette, which measures 74 by 46 cm, shows the king paying homage to the three gods. Several of these vignettes alternate with the text. British Museum, EA 9999,2. Source: The