Face attributed to Ptolemy II Philadelphos or a contemporary

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This very fine fragment from a large statue is attributed to the pharaoh Ptolemy II, or perhaps Ptolemy III, or possibly to a high official of those reigns. Unlike portraits of the 30th dynasty pharaohs and early Ptolemaic royal portraits that continue in that vein, the face shows rounded eyes, fleshy cheeks over suppressed bone structure, a broad mouth, and a knobby chin, features that specialists note may reflect early influence of Hellenistic art on Egyptian. The face was excavated at Heliopolis.

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