Head from a Statue with Magical Texts

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Magical texts like those on the Metternich stela (50.85) probably covered all but the face, feet, and hands of the statue to which this fragment belonged. The statue would have stood in a temple where it could be visited by persons wishing to be healed. Inscribed statues of this type can almost all be dated to the fourth century. A man well-advanced in years is depicted, his skin soft and marked by fine creases but his small eyes and his wide mouth still sure. Realistic representations are known from late Dynasty 26 and probably continued to be made during the Persian Period, although little can be assigned to that interval with certainty; thereafter they knew continuous popularity from the fourth century until the end of the Ptolemaic Period.

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