From queen to pharaoh

FORT WORTH, Texas

She was one of Egypt’s most enigmatic figures, reigning as both queen and king during an era of prosperity and artistic creativity before mysteriously vanishing.

What exactly happened to Queen Hatshepsut has been lost to history, but artifacts from her 20-year reign have survived to dazzle visitors to museums on three continents.

Almost 200 of those artifacts — including sculpture, pottery and jewelry — were assembled from 25 museums in Egypt, Europe and the United States by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco for a 14-month tour of the United States. The unique and unprecedented exhibit, “Hatshepsut: From Queen to Pharaoh,” is in its final leg at the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth after stops in San Francisco and New York. It closes Dec. 31.

“This is one of those rare exhibitions that is a real contribution to the scholarship of this subject,” said Timothy Potts, who has served as director of the Kimbell for the past eight years and specializes on ancient Middle Eastern art. “It brings into the public spotlight one of the most fascinating characters of ancient history — of all history. It also brings together for the first time ever some of the greatest works of art that were ever created in ancient Egypt.”

Hatshepsut was indeed, by most accounts, a fascinating character. She was the daughter of Pharaoh Thutmose I, the third ruler of the 18th Dynasty, the first dynasty of the so-called New Kingdom that began in the 15th century B.C. She married her younger half-brother, who became Thutmose II.

When Thutmose II died, his heir, Thutmose III, scion of his union with another wife, was too young to ascend the throne. For five years, Hatshepsut ruled as regent, then for the next 15 years shared power with her stepsonand nephew.

A female ruler grated on the sensibilities of Egypt’s ruling elite. Nonetheless, Hatshepsut successfully asserted her authority, in part by dressing in the garb of male pharaohs and even by wearing a false beard.

“I don’t think it was so much that she wanted to [dress as a man] as she knew it was the practical thing to do,” Mr. Potts said. “You couldn’t wear a dress and be a king. She wasn’t cross-dressing to fool anyone.”

Hatshepsut secured Egypt’s vulnerable northern borders and expanded trade with the kingdoms of the Fertile Crescent and with the islands of the Aegean.

She was reportedly a highly intelligent woman who exhibited extraordinary skills as an administrator and stateswoman. She has often been compared to other powerful queens, such as England’s Elizabeth I.

The increased trade led to an economic boom, which in turn spawned perhaps Egypt’s greatest period of artistic expression in sculpture, burials, jewelry and pottery.

An equally fascinating character was Hatshepsut’s vizier, Senemut, the power behind her throne, who accumulated considerable wealth, power and influence in his own right. He tutored Hatshepsut’s daughter by Thutmose II, Neferure, and was awarded the ostentatious title, great steward of Amun, the sun god.

The exhibit includes several artifacts associated with Senemut, including a life-size statue of him and a gold funeral scarab amulet worn by his mother.

A recent documentary on the History Channel suggests that the relationship between Hatshepsut and Senemut went beyond the purely professional, but Mr. Potts is skeptical.

“It makes for good TV, but I have my doubts,” he said. “It doesn’t stack up.”

Also nebulous is her relationship with Thutmose III. Hatshepsut and Neferure both disappeared in 1458 B.C.; Hatshepsut’s never-used sarcophagus is in the exhibit.

Apparently on Thutmose III’s orders, the statues of Hatshepsut that reflected her co-rule with him were defaced and buried, about 20 years after her disappearance. Several of the recovered defaced statues are on display — along with others that are intact, including a sphinx.

For millennia, Thutmose III has been suspected of having his stepmother killed, but what really happened remains a mystery. Thutmose III himself died mysteriously after ruling for 33 years after Hatshepsut’s death.

Mr. Potts said he thinks Thutmose III “wanted to erase the precedent [and prevent] another woman usurping some future male heir.”

The exhibit’s stop at the Fort Worth museum is considered something of a cultural coup.

The Kimbell, which opened in 1972, has a permanent collection that includes works by such icons as Rembrandt, Titian, Matisse and Picasso and has carved out an international reputation disproportionate to a midsized Texas city.

“We’ve got a reputation, and part of it is who you know,” said Mr. Potts, an Australian who had served as director of the National Gallery of Victoria. He knows the curator of the Fine Arts Museums in San Francisco, and “she asked me if I were interested. I said yes, it’s long overdue. But I know it couldn’t have been done without the Metropolitan Museum of New York.”

About half the artifacts in the exhibit belong to the Metropolitan Museum.

Thousands of visitors have seen the Hatshepsut exhibit since it opened in Fort Worth Aug. 27.

“We’ve done awfully well,” Mr. Potts said of the response to the exhibit. “Egypt is one of those subjects that has a huge, wide popularity. In this exhibit, there is the wonderful personal story of Hatshepsut. We have a really interesting individual who came in the back door and became not only a king, but the most powerful king in the ancient world.”