Egyptian artisan

Two works of ancient Egyptian art in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York were made by artists whose names are not known. One is a faience hippopotamus from the Middle Kingdom, the other a granite sphinx of the pharaoh Hatshepsut from the New Kingdom.

The earlier work is the small hippopotamus known as William. It is made of faience, a material that contains no clay, and dates from about 1961–1878 B.C., during the reigns of Senusret I and Senusret II. It represents a Nile hippopotamus and was found in a shaft connected with the tomb chapel of the steward Senbi at Meir, in Upper Egypt. The figure has become the Met’s informal mascot, popular both for its appealing look and for what it shows about craft production in Egypt at that time. It is 20 centimeters long, 7.5 centimeters wide and 11.2 centimeters high. Edward S. Harkness gave it to the museum in 1917.

The second work is a sphinx of Hatshepsut, carved in granite and painted, from about 1473–1458 B.C. Hieroglyphs appear on it. Hatshepsut was the sixth pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty and the Great Royal Wife of Thutmose II. She ruled first as regent and then as queen regnant, from about 1479 to about 1458 B.C., and she was the second woman confirmed to have ruled Egypt in her own right. The sphinx represents her. It is 164 centimeters high and 343 centimeters long and weighs 6758.6 kilograms (14,900 pounds). The museum acquired it in 1931 through the Rogers Fund.

Both works belong to the Met’s Egyptian Art department.