New Kingdom and Late Period Art

This splendid selection of statues and stelae, which are upright stones with a sculpted surface, shows the refined styles of the New Kingdom and the Late Period art as well as the grotesque lines of the Amarna style of Akhenaten's reign.

Sculpture returned to the idealistic traditional forms of the Old Kingdom in the early New Kingdom. Kings and queens were depicted by showing their mannerisms and softening their features.

The Theban ruler Seqnenre-Taa and his sons Kamose and Ahmose the First fought to liberate Egypt from the foreign invaders called the Hyksos.

Two men of genius rose to greatness from humble origins. Senenmut became Queen Hatshepsut's talented architect and Amenhotep, Son of Hapu, became vizier and chief of public works for Amenhotep the Third.

Amarna art, influenced by the Aten Cult founded by Akhenaten, is characterized by a realistic style in portraying royalty.

Merenptah, son of Ramesses the Second, had to continue the struggle against the groups of enemies from Syria, Palestine, and Libya who challenged Egyptian authority in the ancient Near East.

Many sculptures of Ramesses the Second and his family were recovered from the great number of temples and monuments built by him.

The last strong Egyptian ruler was Ramesses the Third, who fought off foreign invaders but was eventually murdered by a secondary wife.

The tomb of the chief scribe Psammetik, which belonged to the end of the Twenty-Sixth Dynasty, contained three exquisite schist sculptures.

A shawabti is a type of statuette that is intended to perform work in place of the deceased in the underworld.