Head of King Amenemhat III

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Although somewhat battered, this is an impressive image of a pharaoh wearing the double crown of Upper and Lower Egypt. The head is rounder than those depicting Senwosret III; the eyes are less bulbous, and the lids less fleshy. We see, in fact, a portrait of Senwosret's successor Amenemhat III. A piece closely related in style was found at Kom el-Hisn in the western Nile Delta. Like that sculpture the Museum's head has a distinctly youthful character, which is apparent in spite of the deep furrows at the sides of the king's nose. Egyptian artists often emphasized youthfulness in the face of an already mature pharaoh in images that commemorated the king's thirty-year jubilee (Heb Sed). The king was, in this image, most probably represented seated.

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