Left Side of a Statuette, Probably a Nude Male

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This slightly smiling figure wears a bagwig; the lack of any trace of a garment across the leg indicates that it was nude. The fisted proper left hand, the absence of a pubic triangle, and the iliac crest visible around the hip all indicate a male representation; female figures generally have either open palms or carry birds in a fisted right hand, not the left. Male nude figures are rare in the Middle Kingdom. They have been described as ka-figures, representations of a part of a person’s soul, because one example carries a ka¬-sign on his head. However, it is uncertain if all male nudes had the same meaning.

Egyptian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Met collection of ancient Egyptian art consists of approximately 30,000 objects of artistic, historical, and cultural importance, dating from about 300,000 BCE to the 4th century CE. A signifcant percentage of the collection is derived from the Museum's three decades of archaeological work in Egypt, initiated in 1906 in response to increasing interest in the culture of ancient Egypt.

Metropolitan Museum of Art