Sphinx of Thutmose III
Unknown · Reign of Thutmose III, c. 1479-1425 BC
A lion with the head of a king lies at rest, less than eight centimetres high, cast in bronze and inlaid with gold. The sphinx wears the striped nemes headcloth, and the cobra that once rose from its brow has broken away. Bend close to see the inlays: on the base run the nine bows, the sign for Egypt's enemies, pinned beneath the sphinx's body. Elsewhere are two djed pillars of stability, a star, a pair of lapwings with spread wings standing on baskets, and the king's cartouche, which gives the throne name of Thutmose the Third. The lapwings on baskets spell the phrase all the people in adoration.
The piece is pierced right through, which suggests it was fixed to something else, perhaps the corner of a chest or the bolt of a lock, so that the king's image guarded the contents. Thutmose the Third, who ruled from about fourteen seventy nine to fourteen twenty five BC, extended Egypt's empire from Syria to Sudan, and small luxury objects like this one carried his name into palaces and temples. The Louvre bought the sphinx in early nineteen hundred and one.
Did You Know? The row of nine bows under the sphinx is the Egyptian shorthand for all the foreign peoples, crushed forever beneath the king.
Unlock the Full Guide
Read every room and listen to every work in all museums with premium.