sahure ancient egyptian art

On Sunday, November 7th, I took a trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. The Ancient Egyptian Art exhibit that was on display amazed me. One of the most alluring pieces I saw was “Sahure and a Nome God,” a gneiss high-relief statue which was created between 2458 BCE and 2446 BCE. In this statue, the second Egyptian King of the Fifth Dynasty, Sahure, sits on the throne with the small god of …

…presented as in their physical prime, with bulging muscles so that they appear composed eternally in the statue even after their bodies have decayed. The scale and position of figures in Ancient Egyptian art indicates relative importance. In the statue, Sahure is the largest figure because he is the king, and thus more important than the nome. Additionally, Sahure is also positioned slightly in front of the nome, also revealing his supremacy over the nome.