Bust of an Official

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Only very occasionally do Egyptian statues seem to convey a mood of sadness or concern like this one. This statue has plausibly been dated to the post-Persian Period where such features seem to fit best. The position of the arms and the lack of a back pillar suggest the original statue represented a cross-legged sitting official; if so, it would then be one of the several revivals in the fourth century of features that had gone out of vogue in early Dynasty 26.

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