Artist's Sketch of Pharaoh Spearing a Lion

Art Historical Context

In New Kingdom Egypt, drawings like this one prepared larger reliefs that proclaimed the pharaoh’s power to subdue dangerous forces. The ruler’s victory over a lion stood for the defense of order against chaos, a theme repeated on temple walls and royal monuments of Dynasty 20. The quick ink lines on this limestone piece show the hunt at its most tense moment, with the pharaoh’s forward stride balanced against the lion’s rearing body. A smaller dog tucked beneath the main figures hints at the full hunting party that would have appeared in the finished scene, while stray black sketches above suggest the artist was testing other elements on the same surface. Dating to roughly 1186–1070 B.C., the fragment is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Look at the point where the spear meets the lion’s open jaws; the precise crossing of lines there reveals how the artist planned the exact moment of contact before any paint or carving began.