Kneeling Statue of Senenmut, Chief Steward of Queen Hatshepsut, c. 1473-1458 B.C.

This masterpiece of New Kingdom art portrays Senenmut, the most favored official of the dowager Queen Hatshepsut, who reigned c. 1479–1458 b.c., offering a divine symbol or image to the god Montu. Senenmut was the first commoner since the Old Kingdom to enjoy a level of wealth, prestige, and privilege approaching that traditionally associated with royalty. As the queen’s advisor and tutor of her only daughter, Neferure, Senenmut held more than eighty titles (including Great Treasurer of the Queen; Chief Steward of the King; and Overseer of the Treasury, Granary, Fields, and Cattle of Amun), which gave him control over the vast resources of the royal family and of the state god, Amun. As chief royal architect, he is credited with the design of the splendid funerary temple of Queen Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahri in western Thebes (c. 1458 b.c.).

In this portrait statue, Senenmut grasps a symbolic cobra that supports a sun disk and cowhorns and rests on a base composed of two upraised arms (the hieroglyphic sign for ka)—a magical gesture intended to preserve life and ward off evil. The inscription consists of three vertical lines of incised hieroglyphs on the obelisk-shaped back pillar of the statue and continues around the base, on the top edge of the base, and vertically on the edges of the back. The name of Senenmut has been intentionally erased from the inscription. The cartouche on the right arm reads: The good goddess, Maat-ka-re (Hatshepsut’s throne name), granted life. Sculptures of Senenmut are rare, and of the twenty-two known examples only a handful survive intact.