High Priest as King (?)

ca. 1070–945 B.C.E.

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Object Label

The painting’s title may seem curious, especially since there is clearly someone in this comfortably furnished domestic interior. In the past, however, the phrase “not at home” indicated that the occupants of the house were not available to receive visitors.

This painting held a particularly personal meaning for Eastman Johnson. It shows his wife, Elizabeth, climbing the stairs leading to more private areas of their residence on Manhattan’s West Fifty-fifth Street.

Caption

High Priest as King (?), ca. 1070–945 B.C.E.. Quartzite, 4 7/16 x 2 7/8 x 3 1/4 in. (11.3 x 7.3 x 8.3 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 36.835. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 36.835_threequarter_SL1.jpg)

Title

High Priest as King (?)

Date

ca. 1070–945 B.C.E.

Dynasty

Dynasty 21

Period

Third Intermediate Period

Geography

Place made: Egypt

Medium

Quartzite

Classification

Sculpture

Dimensions

4 7/16 x 2 7/8 x 3 1/4 in. (11.3 x 7.3 x 8.3 cm)

Credit Line

Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund

Accession Number

36.835

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

  • Is the hole in his head damage or symbolic of something?

    Good eye! That hole shows the loss of a uraeus, which you will see in many other depictions of kings in the same spot on their head or headdress. The uraeus was a protective goddess in the form of a cobra, whose image was affixed to a variety of objects. Look for them as you explore! You can find many in those galleries.
  • Tell me more.

    The hole in his forehead is where a uraeus cobra once would have reared its head.
    The indication of the cobra, but no other royal headdress leads scholars to believe that this head depicts a priest who tried to claim kingly power. This is know to have happened especially with high priests of Amun around the time this was created, the 21st Dynasty.

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