Tutmosis III (copy)

New Kingdom
Metropolitan Museum of New York

In one of those odd accidents of art history, the bust of this statue is in the Metropolitan Museum of New York, and its face is in the Egyptian Museum of Cairo. The present photograph is from the Met, whose face seen here is a copy of the original.

The 18th Dynasty warrior pharaoh (1504-1450) is shown here with the serene and kindly countenance that is typical of New Kingdom iconography. Tutmosis ascended the throne as a child, but his rule was co-opted by the reign (technically, a co-regency) of his stepmother Hatshepsut (1498-1483). Following Hatshepsut's death in 1483, Tutmosis furiously erased her name from whatever monuments he could get his hands on, and proceeded to expand the Egyptian empire from Syria to Nubia, in a brilliant series of campaigns which earned him his modern title, "the Napoleon of ancient Egypt."