Head of Queen Hatshepsut (?) (c. 1479–1457 BCE): Art, History and Details

Head of Queen Hatshepsut (?) (c. 1479–1457 BCE) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Tuthmosis III was still a child when he came to the throne, so his stepmother and aunt, Hatshepsut, assumed the reins of government, first as regent, then as full-fledged king beside him. This beautiful head represents either Hatshepsut or Tuthmosis III, whose facial features are notoriously difficult to tell apart. They ruled together for 22 years, and presumably the same sculptors worked for them both. Very likely the sculptors themselves did not know whose statue they were working on until the final inscription was added.

Object facts

• Title: Head of Queen Hatshepsut (?)
• Date: c. 1479–1457 BCE
• Culture: Egypt, New Kingdom (1540–1069 BCE), Dynasty 18, reign of Hatshepsut (c. 1479–1458 BCE)
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: graywacke
• Dimensions: Overall: 16.2 x 14.9 x 17.8 cm (6 3/8 x 5 7/8 x 7 in.)
• Collection: Egypt - New Kingdom
• Department: Egyptian and Ancient Near Eastern Art
• Accession number: 1917.976

Collection credit

Gift of the John Huntington Art and Polytechnic Trust

Further reading listed by the museum

• The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958.
• Cleveland Museum of Art, and Martha L. Carter. Egyptian Art, the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, Ohio: The Museum, 1963.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.