New photography by Pat Cagney with a digital camera.

Sekhmet

Artist Unknown

CultureEgyptian

DateDynasty 18, reign of Amenhotep III, 1390-1353 B.C.E.

MediumDiorite (stone)

Dimensions69 1/4 x 20 1/2 x 35 in., approximate weight 4850 lb. (175.9 x 52.1 x 88.9 cm, 2199.9 kg)

InscribedHieroglyphs

Credit LineGift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.

Object number71.2253

Collections

Ancient Mediterranean Art

On View

Chrysler Museum of Art, Gallery 109

DescriptionCartouches on throne recut in 22nd dynasty by Sheshonk I, 950-929 B.C.Statue of a lioness-headed woman sitting on a cubic seat against a back pillar. Her hands are resting on her thighs, but her left forearm is destroyed. She is wearing a tight dress, a broad necklace, and a long wig which locks fall over her shoulders. Her lion head is framed by a short round mane, and is apparently damaged in its upmost part: the ears especially are missing. In general, the sculpture has suffered many minor injuries, and the feet and the front of the base are deeply worn away.

Label TextSekhmet New Kingdom, Dynasty 18, Reign of Amenhotep III, 1390–1353 B.C.E. Diorite Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. 71.2253 The lion-headed Sekhmet, “the Powerful,” was the deadly handmaiden of the sun god Re. Sent by Re to punish his enemies, she unleashed a massacre so bloody that the god himself had to intervene to stop it. As the goddess of vengeance and human calamity—war, disease, plague—she required appeasement to keep her powers in check. This imposing Sekhmet was one of hundreds of similar statues of the goddess that King Amenhotep III commissioned for his funerary temple on the western shore of the Nile at Thebes. (Two towering statues of Amenhotep, known as the Colossi of Memnon, are virtually all that remain at this site, as shown in the nineteenth-century painting of them on view nearby.) Perhaps the pharaoh desired a statue for every day of the year to insure full protection against Sekhmet’s evil forces both in life and death. As Amenhotep’s temple decayed, later kings like Sheshonq I moved many of the statues to Karnak, the principal temple of the god Amun at Thebes. This is where the Chrysler’s Sekhmet was found, its hieroglyphs recut to honor Sheshonq and his devotion to Amun. The hieroglyphs on the sculpture can be translated thus: The king of Upper and Lower Egypt, the Lord of the Two Lands, Hedjkheperre Setepenre [=Brilliantis- Re’s-Transformation, The-Chosen-of-Re] The son of Re, the Master of Appearances, Sheshonq Mery-Amun [=Sheshonq The-Beloved-of-Amun]Published ReferencesJeff Harrison, _Collecting with Vision: Treasures From the Chrysler Museum of Art_ (London: D. Giles Ltd., 2007), 15, fig. 3. ISBN: 978-0-940744-72-1