Statue of Ptah

Art Museum Journal (Stan Parchin)

Photograph and description.

The number of deities in ancient Egypt's pantheon was myriad. Popular devotion to Ptah, the patron god of artists and craftsmen, distinguished him from the hundreds of others since the Old Kingdom days of the pyramids (Dynasties 3-6, ca. 2686-2125 B.C.). His cult was centered in Memphis, Egypt's first capital city. A gilded wooden Statue of Ptah (ca. 1332-1323 B.C.) in the special exhibition Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs survived the monotheistic heresy of Pharaoh Akhenaten (r. 1353-1336 B.C.), attesting to the deity's renewed importance during the nine-year reign of the young Tutankhamun (r. 1332-1323 B.C.).