Seti I, second king of Dynasty 19, was, like his father Ramesses I, very conscious of his role in establishing a new dynasty and restoring the power and stature of Egypt among its neighbors. He campaigned in the Levant and his battle reliefs decorate the exterior walls of the huge hypostyle hall that he added to the temple of Karnak. He also reopened the gold mines in the eastern desert and Nubia. He built a beautiful mortuary temple for himself at Abydos in which was carved the famous kinglist of Abydos, as well as a mortuary temple at Thebes. In the Valley of the Kings, he built one of the most beautifully carved and decorated tombs ever made there.
This kneeling statue of the king shows him making offerings to Osiris and was probably intended for his temple at Abydos. The same high artistic standards that are seen in the reliefs of Seti I are evident in this statue and the face seems to be reminiscent of earlier kings of Dynasty 18 such as Thutmose III.
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Artwork Details
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Title:Statue of Seti I
Period:New Kingdom, Ramesside
Dynasty:Dynasty 19
Reign:reign of Seti I
Date:ca. 1294–1279 B.C.
Geography:Made for Northern Upper Egypt, Abydos; From Egypt
Medium:Granodiorite
Dimensions:H. 114.5 × W. 37 × D. 76 cm (45 1/16 × 14 9/16 × 29 15/16 in.)
Credit Line:Rogers Fund, 1922
Object Number:22.2.21
The statue is inscribed on all sides. The inscription on the right reads:
nTr nfr wr DfA.w jn kA.w n nb.w tA-wr nswt-bj.tj nb tA.wi Mn-mAa.t-raw The perfect god, great of provisions, who brings sustenance to the lords of the Thinite nome, King of Upper and Lower Egypt, Lord of the Two lands, Menmaatre (Seti I)
The inscription on the left reads:
nTr nfr wab-a.wi sHtp nTr.w tA-wr zA raw nb xa.w stX.y-mr-n-ptH The perfect god, pure of hands, who pleases the god of the Thinite nome, son of Re, lord of crowns, Seti (I) Merenptah
The inscription on the back pillar reads:
wab a.wi Hr mz Htp n jt=f Wsjr nb tA-wr nswt-bj.tj Mn-mAa.t-raw Pure of hands while bringing offerings for his father, Osiris, lord of the Thinite nome, the King of Upper and Lower Egypt, Menmaatre (Seti I)
The inscription at the front is mostly missing, and only one word appears to appear twice:
...nHH... (for)ever
Comments: When writing the name Seti in the second text, the inscription does not write the god Seth's name but rather uses the so-called Isis knot to write the sound st.
Niv Allon 2015
Purchased from Maurice Nahman, Cairo, 1922.
Scott, Nora E. 1945. Egyptian Statues. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, fig. 21.
Clère, J. J. 1957. "Notes sur la chapelle funeraire de Ramesses I et sur son inscription dedicatoire." In Revue d'Égyptologie, 11, p. 32.
Vandier, Jacques 1958. Manuel d'archéologie égyptienne: Les grandes époques: La statuaire, 3. Paris, 391, 408, 411, 416, pl. 125.
Hayes, William C. 1959. Scepter of Egypt II: A Background for the Study of the Egyptian Antiquities in the Metropolitan Museum of Art: The Hyksos Period and the New Kingdom (1675-1080 B.C.). Cambridge, Mass.: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, p. 330; pp. 334–35, fig. 210.
Russmann, Edna R. 1973. "The Statue of Amenemope-em-hat." In Metropolitan Museum Journal, 8, c.f. pp. 38–39, n. 22.
Kitchen, K. A. 1974. Ramesside Inscriptions I (Oxford, 1974). Oxford, 198, no. 80b.
Metropolitan Museum of Art 1977. Ancient Egypt in the Metropolitan Museum Journal, 1–11. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, p. 105, n. 13.
Aldred, Cyril 1979. L'Empire des conquérants, 2. Paris, pp. 186, 292, fig. 350.
Cardon, Patrick 1979. "Amenmesse: An Egyptian Royal Head of the Nineteenth Dynasty in the Metropolitan Museum." In Metropolitan Museum Journal, vol. 14, p. 13, n. 22, 24.
Baines, John and Jaromir Malek 1980. Atlas of Ancient Egypt. New York, p. 39.
Aldred, Cyril 1980. Egyptian Art in the Days of the Pharaohs, 3100-320 BC, World of Art, New York: Oxford University Press, p. 189.
Dittmar, J. 1980. "Ein Bruchstück einer Opfernden Figur in der Tübinger Sammlung." In Göttinger Miszellen.
Solia, Victoria 1992. "A Group of Royal Sculptures from Abydos." In Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt, 29.
Sourouzian, Hourig 1993. "Statues et représentations de statues royales sous Séthi I." In Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts, Abteilung Kairo, 49.
Laboury, Dimitri 1998. La Statuaire de Thoutmosis III, 5. Ægyptiaca Leodiensia, Liege: C. I. P. L., p. 432 (n. 1136).
Capriotti Vittozzi, Giuseppina 2010. "La statua di Sethi I da Grottaferrata." In Atti della Accademia delle scienze di Torino: Tomo 2, Classe di scienze morali, storiche e filologiche, 144.
Sourouzian, Hourig 2019. Catalogue de la statuaire royale de la XIXe dynastie, Bibliothèque d'étude, Cairo, cat. 13, pp. 28-29.
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