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The Brooklyn Museum

Collections: Egyptian, Classical, and Ancient Middle Eastern Art




Group Statue of Nebsen and Nebet-ta

Group Statue of Nebsen and Nebet-ta. Egypt, probably from Sumenu. New Kingdom, Dynasty 18, early in the reign of Amunhotep III, circa 1390–1353 B.C. Limestone, 15 3/4 x 8 9/16 x 9 1/4 in. (40 x 21.8 x 23.5 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 40.523

Nebsen, the scribe of the royal treasury, and his wife, the songstress of Isis, Nebet-ta, wear the elaborate wigs fashionable in the later Eighteenth Dynasty. Their jewelry, painted yellow to imitate gold, was varnished to make it shine; the varnish has darkened with time. The inscription tells us that the statue was made for the couple's tomb by their son, Weserhat. In fulfilling this filial duty after their deaths, he had them depicted in the fashion of his day, rather than that current under Thutmose III, when they actually lived.

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