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Colossal Standard-Bearer Statue of Seti II
Unknown · Reign of Seti II, 1202-1196 BC
Nearly four metres of pale golden stone: the pharaoh Seti II stands with his left foot forward, gripping against his shoulder a tall pole, the standard of a god that he carried in procession. He wears the double crown of Upper and Lower Egypt with a cobra at the brow, a short wig and a straight false beard, and a pleated kilt with an apron edged by rearing cobras and a leopard's head at the belt. Look for the cartouches on the front and sides: in the king's own name, Seti, the figure of the god Seth has been hammered away. Centuries later, when Seth had become a hated god, someone tried to erase him and missed the pillar.
The statue stood in the small bark shrine that Seti II built at the entrance of the great temple of Amun-Re at Karnak, one of a pair; its twin is in the Egyptian Museum in Turin. The Comte de Forbin, director of the royal museums, bought the statue in Rome from the dealers Forestier and Guidi, and it entered the Louvre in July 1827.
Did You Know? Later Egyptians chiselled the name of the god Seth out of the king's own name on this statue, but forgot the back pillar.
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