A standing Amenhotep III is the luxury peak of the Eighteenth Dynasty: the king as a polished, almost languid star of his own court.
Mercury 91 is not affiliated with The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Images and object data shown here are public-domain Open Access (CC0) records from The Met collection. Citations are given so you can visit each work on the museum site.
Amenhotep III’s reign is famous for wealth, colossal sculpture, and a court style that likes flesh. Standing figures from his time can feel relaxed compared with Middle Kingdom tension. Power here is plenty, not strain.
He is also the king of the Malqata palace and of the ceiling painting in this same catalog. The standing statue is the body. The ceiling is the indoor sky he walked under. Read them as a pair.
Amenhotep III’s later portraits sometimes show him as a child-sun or as a plump god-king. This standing type is still the official adult. It is the public planet. The palace paintings are the private orbit.
In 3D he is a colonnade portrait among other New Kingdom faces. The essay’s job is to slow you down: this is the reign that made luxury look easy, just before his son Akhenaten spent it on a revolution.
Citation
Standing figure of Amenhotep III. ca. 1386–1347 BCE. Chlorite schist. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. 30.8.74. Theodore M. Davis Collection, Bequest of Theodore M. Davis, 1915
Public-domain Open Access (CC0) photograph. Dimensions: H. 22.2 (8 3/4 in.n); W. 8.6 (3 3/8 in.); D. 10.6 cm (4 3/16 in.)
