Upper part of a royal statue (Tuthmosis III)

On account of its idealization and the elegance of its form, the impressive mastery over the material, and especially because of the great personality expressed in it, this work must rank as a prime example of Egyptian royal sculpture. The face is a typical "Thutmoside face", as displayed by all members of the royal family of the early 18th dynasty, doubtless because of their similar family features. The high plasticity of the face is stressed by the eye-paint lines on the eyes and brows, by the broad ceremonial beard, and the canonical royal head-covering, the "nemes", which provides a harmonious framing of the head. The upper body is bare, suggesting that the lower body, which is now lost, was once dressed in the short ceremonial kilt of the Pharaohs (and the gods). With only the upper body remaining, the statue's posture can only be deduced on the basis of subtle details. The upper arms are inclined slightly forward, as can be seen on the left arm where the beginning of the lower arm has been preserved. This indicates that the king was originally represented kneeling with an offering in each hand; these offerings were probably the two round vessels which during a particular offering ritual were presented by the king in this posture. On the basis of the strict Egyptian canon of proportions, we can estimate the original height of the statue with a fair amount of precision. In the case of a kneeling posture, this would have been c. 90 cm, and in the case of a standing posture c. 125 cm. The base of the statue would have measured another 20 cm in height.