Princess Sobeknakht in the Brooklyn Museum, March 2010

Princess Sobeknakht Suckling a Prince

Beginning in the Middle Kingdom, craftsmen demonstrated great skill in designing and manufacturing metal statuary. This copper statuette, representing a woman suckling a male child, is considered among the finest of these sculptures. The inscription on the base identifies the subject as the "hereditary noblewoman" Sobeknakht; her fillet and uraeus-cobra show that she is a princess. The figure may have been commissioned to celebrate the birth of a prince, to signal a reigning king's devotion to his mother, or to reflect Sobeknakht's wish for divine help in conceiving a child who would become Egypt's king.

Medium: Copper alloy

Place Made: Egypt

Dates: ca. 1700-after 1630 B.C.E.

Dynasty: XIII Dynasty

Period: Middle Kingdom-Second Intermediate Period

Dimensions: 3 3/4 in. (9.5 cm) Base: 3/16 x 2 3/4 x 3 3/16 in. (0.5 x 7 x 8.1 cm)

Conservation Report: 4 x 2 3/4 x 3 1/4 in. (10.2 x 7 x 8.3 cm)

Collections: Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art

Museum Location: This item is on view in Egypt Reborn: Art for Eternity, Old Kingdom to 18th Dynasty, Egyptian Galleries, 3rd Floor

Accession Number: 43.137

Credit Line: Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund

Text from: www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/3463/Prince...