Seated statue of the pharaoh Hatshepsut (detail), Egyptian, New Kingdom, 18th Dynasty

Maverick Kings: Three Visionary Pharaohs of Egypt's Golden Age

Now showing6 September 2026 – 6 December 2026Ticketed — see website

Hatshepsut, Akhenaten and Tutankhamun through the art of Egypt's 18th Dynasty (1550–1292 BCE), when royal patronage drove a wave of societal and artistic change. Ann and Graham Gund Gallery.

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On now All of October 2026

The limestone Hatshepsut has serene, refined features, and it carries the marks of deliberate damage done to her image after her reign. She is the first of three rulers, and the show follows them in order, one gallery each.

Nearly 100 objects come from the MFA's own Egyptian collection, joined by eight loans from the Met, Berlin's Egyptian Museum, the Cleveland Museum of Art and the Kimbell. Hatshepsut's rooms are dim, with ochre walls. Amenhotep III's include a video of his mortuary temple across the Nile. Akhenaten gets fewer, smaller pieces, because so much of his work was destroyed. One object is a falcon nearly six feet tall: the tallest thing on your Green Line E ride is usually someone's backpack.

The Boston Globe's Murray Whyte called it a revelation. Entry is by timed ticket for everyone, members included, and it covers general admission. The MFA's audio tour has curator Lawrence Berman. It closes 6 December.

Editor's pick

A granodiorite falcon nearly six feet tall, and Hatshepsut's quartzite sarcophagus, the only 18th-Dynasty royal one outside Egypt. Nearly 100 objects, mostly from the MFA's own Egyptian collection, follow Hatshepsut, Akhenaten and Tutankhamun.

Look for

Hatshepsut's sarcophagus
The only royal sarcophagus from the 18th Dynasty outside Egypt, made of quartzite.
The nearly six-foot falcon
A polished granodiorite statue from Amenhotep III's reign, with a towering headdress.
The naos of Bak and his wife
A purplish quartzite shrine-shaped monument, carved in a coldly naturalistic style, that Whyte called one of the oddest objects of the ancient world.
The painted head of Tutankhamen
A sculpted portrait of the king who restored the cults of the old gods.
Awol Erizku's Nefertiti
In the final gallery, the artist reimagines Berlin's famous Nefertiti bust as a symbol of African heritage.