Hatshepsut's statues destroyed - lecture in Toronto on Sept 29th
The SSEA
Speaker: Dr. Dorothea Arnold, Metropolitan Museum of Art
Monday, September 29, 2008 | 7:00 pm
Room 142, 5 Bancroft Ave, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
This lecture is free and open to all.
For more information, visit: http://www.thesssea.org
Hatshepsut is the best known of ancient Egypt's female pharaohs. She
ruled Egypt for two decades, from about. 1475–1460 B.C.) during
Egypt's 18th Dynasty. After the death of her husband, Thutmose II,
Hateshepsut ruled first as regent for, then as co-ruler with, her
nephew and step-son Thutmose III. They enjoyed a relatively peaceful
reign together, during which Hatshepsut restored monuments destroyed
during the Hyksos rule and war of explusion. She renewed trade with
western Asia, Punt on the horn of Africe and the Aegean Islands to the
north. Peace and economic prosperity were reflected in the art of the
time, which is characterized by "remarkable innovations in sculpture
and decorative arts" and the mortuary temples of both Hatshepsut and
Thutmose III at Deir el-Bahri. After Hatshepsut's death, Thutmose III
ruled alone for a further three decades and undertook campaigns of
conquest that put much of the eastern Mediterranean coast and parts of
Nubia under Egyptian control. For reasons that are still unclear,
twenty years after Hatshepsut died her successor had her statues
smashed and her name and image erased from all monuments.
About The Speaker: Dr. Dorothea Arnold is Lila Acheson Wallace Curator
in Charge in the Department of Egyptian Art of The Metropolitan Museum
of Art in New York. Dr. Arnold is the author of When the Pyramids Were
Built: Egyptian Art of the Old Kingdom and co-author of The Royal
Women of Amarna: Images of Beauty from Ancient Egypt and dozens of
articles, including "The Destruction of the Statues of Hatshepsut from
Deir El-Bahri"in the catalogue of the exhibition Hatshepsut: From
Queen to Pharaoh.