Head of a King, possibly Amememhat IV

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This small royal head is not easy to place in the history of Middle Kingdom art. The face is certainly reminiscent of images created late in the reign of Amenemhat III, but such resemblances are seen in many royal portraits created throughout late Dynasty 12 and Dynasty 13. There is one approach, however, that might lead to a tentative attribution of the head. Part of the lintel of a limestone shrine was found among the debris west of the pyramid of Amenemhat I (22.1.12), exhibited in gallery 109). It is inscribed with the name of Amenemhat IV. If there indeed existed a shrine for a statue of that king at the site, this head might once have been part of it. Except for small human faces on a row of uraei cobras, there is no other statue preserved showing the features of this son and successor of Amenemhat III.

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