Head of a sphinx, possibly of Amenemhat I

Head of a sphinx, possibly of Amenemhat I

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The smiling mouth, wide open eyes, and rounded cheeks suggest a youthful king, and the proportions of the nemes, along with the depth of the break, indicate that the head was part of a comparatively small sphinx. The low forehead, high eyebrows and high position of the ears are reminiscent of the head in the Metropolitan Museum of Art attributed to Mentuhotep III (66.99.3), but the eyes of the present head are larger, the cheeks leaner and the mouth more modulated. These features are also seen in the head of a statue inscribed for Amenemhat I in the Egyptian Museum, Cairo (JE 60520) and are even more closely matched by the head of a non-royal statue, also in Cairo (CG 409), which was found in the mastaba tomb of the steward Nakht at Lisht North. That mastaba is undoubtedly contemporary with the pyramid of Amenemhat I, or only very slightly later. These - and other - parallels make the identification of the present head as Amenemhat I very likely.

Egyptian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Head of a sphinx, possibly of Amenemhat IHead of a sphinx, possibly of Amenemhat IHead of a sphinx, possibly of Amenemhat IHead of a sphinx, possibly of Amenemhat IHead of a sphinx, possibly of Amenemhat I

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.