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Description. In this
over-life-size sculpture in the round, Sesostris III is portrayed with
a prominent, overhanging brow-ridge; heavy-lidded and deeply set eyes
with pouches underneath; a drawn-down curving mouth with shallow lines
at the corners; high cheek bones that appear to protrude through the flesh
in sharp peaks; a strong, rounded chin; and large, flaring ears. Deep
naso-labial furrows, two creases over the bridge of the nose, and a horizontal
furrow across the brow mark the otherwise unlined face. He wears the nemes
(pharaonic headcloth) with a uraeus in front.
Artistic context.
More than 100 heads of Sesostris III have survived (Bourriau 37). All
have the same features, leading one scholar to propose Sesostris III’s
master court sculptor executed an official model and that molds of this
portrait were sent to large workshops (Vandier 194). Wilson (132) has
proposed the type may have been developed to represent the great stresses
of responsibility experienced by a ruler. Naturalistic sculpture was the
dominant sculptural style during the 12th Dynasty (Bothmer 1982, 28).
Function. It is unknown
where the sculpture originally stood and whether it was a sphinx or a
standing or seated human figure (Taggart 8). Most colossal, royal statues
were made for a particular architectural setting (Bourriau 37). Sesostris
III’s sculpture may have been in a temple dedicated to a god or the king
himself. During the Middle Kingdom, a great number of temple sculptures
were placed in areas where the general populace might see them (Freed
331). By the time of Sesostris III, these royal statues were meant to
impress men and reassert the king’s power in a particular locality (Bourriau
37; Taggart 10).
Historical background.
Sesostris III (also spelled Senwosret, Senusert, and Senusret) was the
fifth king of the 12th Dynasty. One of the most powerful Egyptian pharaohs,
Sesostris III governed with increased authority after substantially weakening
the power of local nobles. As a result, the Egyptian middle class emerged.
Artisans’ skills were available to more people, as indicated by the countless
stelae dedicated by the middle class near the sanctuary of Osiris at Abydos
(Hayes 506; see Stela of Seankhy and Ankhu).
Sesostris
III launched at least four military campaigns into Nubia. To guard and
exploit the new frontier, he constructed a chain of massive mud-brick
fortresses along the Nile and cut a new channel near Aswan to provide
a navigable waterway. The forts, garrisoned by Egyptian soldiers, possessed
elaborate defensive systems incorporating ramparts, ditches, bastions,
and huge gates with drawbridges (David 134; Quirke and Spencer 204). So
powerful was Sesostris III in the region of Nubia, he was later worshipped
there as a local god (David 135). The main threat to the security of the
frontier undoubtedly came from the growing power in the Kerma Basin, named
“Kush” in Egyptian records (Quirke and Spencer 204-5).
Published: Ross Taggart,
“A Quartzite Head of Sesostris III,” The Nelson Gallery and Atkins
Museum Bulletin 4, no. 2 (1962), 8-15; Emma Hall, “Some Ancient Egyptian
Sculpture in American Museums,” Apollo 88 (July 1968), 15-6; Apollo
1972, 476 fig. 3; Handbook
1973, 26; Bernard Bothmer, “Revealing Man’s Fate in Man’s Face,” Art
News 79, no. 6 (1980), 124; Ellen Goheen, The Collections of the
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1988), 21;
Handbook
1993, 24, 112; Rita Freed, “Beauty and Perfection—Pharaonic Art,”
in Egypt 331-41, 336 no.
19; Nagoya/Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Art of the Ancient Mediterranean
World (Nagoya and Boston: Nagoya/Boston Museum of Fine Arts, 1999),
21.
Other cited sources:
Bernard Bothmer, “On Realism in Egyptian Funerary Sculpture,” Expedition
24 (1982), 27-39; Janine Bourriau, Pharaohs and Mortals: Egyptian Art
in the Middle Kingdom (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988);
Rosalie and Antony E. David, A Biographical Dictionary of Ancient Egypt
(London: B. A. Seaby Ltd., 1992); William C. Hayes, “The Administrative
Reforms and Foreign Campaigns of Sesostris III,” in I. E. S. Edwards,
C. J. Gadd, N. G. L. Hammond (eds.), The Cambridge Ancient History
I, 2 (London: Cambridge University Press, 1971), 505-9; Stephen Quirke
and Jeffrey Spencer (eds.), The British Museum Book of Ancient Egypt
(New York: Thames and Hudson, 1992); Jacques Vandier, Manuel d’archéologie
égyptienne III (Paris: Picard et Cie., 1958); John Wilson,
The Culture of Ancient Egypt (Chicago: Chicago University Press,
1965).
Other useful sources:
Spanel 1988, 64-74; Dietrich Wildung,
Sesostris und Amenemhet: Ägypten im Mitteleren Reich (Munich:
Hirmer, 1984).
(EAM)
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