Group of statues of the god Horus and the king Haremhab

Group of statues of the god Horus and the king Haremhab

material	limestone
Dimensions	H. 152 cm; W. 73.1 cm; T. 77 cm;
origin	unknown
time	New Kingdom , 18th Dynasty , around 1300 BC Chr.
place	Vienna , Kunsthistorisches Museum , KHM 8301

The group of statues of the god Horus and the king Haremhab is in the Egyptian-Oriental Collection of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna . It shows the ancient Egyptian king ( pharaoh ) Haremhab together with the god Horus and dates to the 18th dynasty of the New Kingdom (around 1300 BC).

Haremhab was an officer under Akhenaten and Semenchkare . After these two kings he was jointly responsible with Eje at the beginning of Tutankhamun's reign for the move of the government from Achet-Aton to Memphis and for the renunciation of the Aten religion. After Tutankhamun's early death, Eje took over the rule for four years and after his death, Haremhab, who is neither related to the Amarna kings nor to his successor Ramses I , was crowned king himself. He had his rule confirmed by the god Amun at the Theban Opet festival (coronation stele). Under Haremhab, the restoration of the old cults and the rebuilding of the old temples were completed in the course of the departure from the Aton religion.

Detail: Haremhab's face

In addition to this group of statues of the haremhab with Horus, there are two other groups of statues. One is in Turin and shows him with Amun, the other in London shows him with Amun-Kamutef . Amun is the god who confirmed Haremhab's coronation; but it was "his father Horus" who chose him to be Pharaoh. The Vienna statue group was created in his honor .

The limestone sculpture shows the almost life-size King Haremhab, who sits to the left of the god Horus. Horus holds his right arm around the king's waist, in his left he holds the sign of life. Both figures wear the short ritual apron, the double crown ( Pschent ) and uraeus snake on their head , the king also the striped Nemes headscarf and the royal beard .

The group of statues has undergone extensive restoration in modern times, in which the outer arms and feet of both figures, the left hand, the beard and the tip of the king's nose as well as the falcon's beak were added .

Helmut Satzinger says about the effect of the sculpture:

“The fascinating effect of the work is primarily based on the contrast between the traditional rigor of the general design and the king's face, which was still largely shaped by the spirit of late Amarna art. The realism, which reproduces the anatomical details, and the portrait character retained despite all idealization are a continuation of the art of the "heretic king" Akhenaten. All in all, the sculpture seems to bring the personality of the energetic statesman Haremhab closer to us than any other of his portraits. "

- Helmut Satzinger

The actual origin of the group of statues in Egypt is not known. It was inherited from the Estensian collection (Schloss Cattajo) by Archduke Franz Ferdinand and transferred to the collection of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna in 1918.

literature

Helmut Satzinger : Egyptian Art in Vienna. Kunsthistorisches Museum, mbv, Vienna 1980, ISBN 3-900325-03-0 .
Helmut Satzinger, Jürgen Liepe: The Art History Museum in Vienna. The Egyptian-Oriental Collection (= Ancient World. Special 1994; Zabern's illustrated books on archeology. Vol. 14). von Zabern, Mainz 1994, ISBN 978-3-8053-1600-2 .
Matthias Seidel: The royal statue groups. Volume I: The Monuments from the Old Kingdom to the End of the 18th Dynasty. In: Hildesheimer Egyptological contributions. (HÄB) Vol. 42, Hildesheim 1996, p. 254.
CD-ROM of the Kunsthistorisches Museum (KHM): Treasures of Egypt in Europe. Part 5: The Art History Museum. 2002.

Web links

Group of statues of the god Horus and the king Haremhab in the object database of the Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna
Entry and description on The Global Egyptian Museum

Individual evidence

^ Thomas Schneider: Lexicon of the Pharaohs. Albatros, Düsseldorf 2002, ISBN 3-491-96053-3 , p. 126.
^ Helmut Satzinger: Egyptian Art in Vienna. Vienna 1980, p. 37.
^ Helmut Satzinger: Egyptian Art in Vienna. Vienna 1980, pp. 37-38.
^ Helmut Satzinger: Egyptian Art in Vienna. Vienna 1980, p. 38.
↑ Helmut Satzinger: The Art History Museum in Vienna. The Egyptian-Oriental Collection. 1994, p. 97.

[1] Thomas Schneider: Lexicon of the Pharaohs. Albatros, Düsseldorf 2002, ISBN 3-491-96053-3 , p. 126.

[2] Helmut Satzinger: Egyptian Art in Vienna. Vienna 1980, p. 37.

[3] Helmut Satzinger: Egyptian Art in Vienna. Vienna 1980, pp. 37-38.

[4] Helmut Satzinger: Egyptian Art in Vienna. Vienna 1980, p. 38.

[5] Helmut Satzinger: The Art History Museum in Vienna. The Egyptian-Oriental Collection. 1994, p. 97.