| Heart Scarab of Hatnefer | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Artist | Unknown |
| Year | c. 1480 B.C |
| Medium | Serpentinite and gold |
| Location | Metropolitan Museum of Art |
The Heart Scarab of Hatnefer is a piece of funerary jewelry dating to the 15th century BC. Done in gold and serpentinite, the Heart scarab was intended to be interred with a person of importance. The piece is currently in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
The work, dating to the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt, is intricately detailed; the scarab (a common symbol associated with the god Khepri) at the center of the work is carved from a single mottled grey-green serpentinite stone. This figure is mounted on a gold base, and is fastened to said base by more gold. A chapter from the Book of the Dead is inscribed on the object, indicating that the work was intended to be buried with Egyptian noblewoman Hatnefer. Specificity, the inscription invokes Spell 30 from Chapter A of the Book of the Dead, entreating the gods to not judge Hatnefer's heart in the afterlife. [1] [2]
As noted by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Hatnefer's name was inscribed on the piece over another name, indicating that the scarab was originally not meant for her. [1] [2]
The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. In 2022 it welcomed 3,208,832 visitors, ranking it the third most visited U.S museum, and eighth on the list of most-visited art museums in the world. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 Fifth Avenue, along the Museum Mile on the eastern edge of Central Park on Manhattan's Upper East Side, is by area one of the world's largest art museums. The first portion of the approximately 2-million-square-foot (190,000 m2) building was built in 1880. A much smaller second location, The Cloisters at Fort Tryon Park in Upper Manhattan, contains an extensive collection of art, architecture, and artifacts from medieval Europe.
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Ancient Egyptian art refers to art produced in ancient Egypt between the 6th millennium BC and the 4th century AD, spanning from Prehistoric Egypt until the Christianization of Roman Egypt. It includes paintings, sculptures, drawings on papyrus, faience, jewelry, ivories, architecture, and other art media. It was a conservative tradition whose style changed very little over time. Much of the surviving examples comes from tombs and monuments, giving insight into the ancient Egyptian afterlife beliefs.
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Khasekhemre Neferhotep I was an Egyptian pharaoh of the mid Thirteenth Dynasty ruling in the second half of the 18th century BC during a time referred to as the late Middle Kingdom or early Second Intermediate Period, depending on the scholar. One of the best attested rulers of the 13th Dynasty, Neferhotep I reigned for 11 years.
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