Collection
/
Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art

Private Statuette

ca. 1352–1336 B.C.E.

1 of 8

Caption

Private Statuette, ca. 1352–1336 B.C.E.. Limestone, pigment, 3 1/2 x 1 1/16 x 2 1/4 in. (8.9 x 2.7 x 5.7 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of the Egypt Exploration Society, 29.1310. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 29.1310_SL1.jpg)

Title

Private Statuette

Date

ca. 1352–1336 B.C.E.

Dynasty

late Dynasty 18

Period

New Kingdom, Amarna Period

Geography

Place excavated: Tell el-Amarna, Egypt

Medium

Limestone, pigment

Classification

Sculpture

Dimensions

3 1/2 x 1 1/16 x 2 1/4 in. (8.9 x 2.7 x 5.7 cm)

Credit Line

Gift of the Egypt Exploration Society

Accession Number

29.1310

Rights

Creative Commons-BY

You may download and use Brooklyn Museum images of this three-dimensional work in accordance with a Creative Commons license. Fair use, as understood under the United States Copyright Act, may also apply. Please include caption information from this page and credit the Brooklyn Museum. If you need a high resolution file, please fill out our online application form (charges apply). For further information about copyright, we recommend resources at the United States Library of Congress, Cornell University, Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums, and Copyright Watch. For more information about the Museum's rights project, including how rights types are assigned, please see our blog posts on copyright. If you have any information regarding this work and rights to it, please contact copyright@brooklynmuseum.org.

Frequent Art Questions

  • Why did the Egyptians make these statues?

    Something of this scale likely served as a model; a stand-in for an actual man holding a lotus. In the afterlife, the soul of a deceased person could inhabit a statue of themselves.
    Most of these statues aren't portrait sculpture in a modern sense. For ancient Egyptians, writing a person's name on the sculpture was the necessary element to make tie a statue to a person.
    Thanks
    You're welcome! You can tell when a sculpture is of a man, because his skin is often painted a dark red. Women were generally depicted with pale yellow or white skin.

  • What does private statue mean?

    When Egyptologists use the word "private" it means that the object belongs to a private individual and a private individual is anyone other than the king and his immediate family.
    So, this "Private Statuette," is quite simply a statuette that depicts and belonged to someone outside of the royal family.

  • Why have very few private sculptures survived?

    I know that at Akhetaten (the ancient name of Amarna), there was a real emphasis on art dedicated to the royal family.
    Perhaps not as many sculptures of private (meaning non-royal) individuals were made or maybe many of them were taken away when the city was abandoned only a few decades after it was built.

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