Upper part of a male seated figure

Upper part of a male seated figure

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This head and half of a torso preserves the upper part of the figure of a seated official. The full sculpture would likely have shown the man with his legs folded in front of him and his hands resting on his lap. The official’s age and status are indicated by his soft musculature and underscored by the rolls of fat visible on his chest. It is possible that the statue was deliberately broken, with the eyes, nose, and mouth mutilated to ritually "deactivate" it.

Egyptian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Upper part of a male seated figureUpper part of a male seated figureUpper part of a male seated figureUpper part of a male seated figureUpper part of a male seated figure

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.