Head of a King
A king's face in a striped headdress, with the nose and lips partly preserved: a late 12th Dynasty royal head carved from red quartzite. Full commentary ↓
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Head of a King is a stone object by an unknown maker (ca. 1802–1749 B.C.) in the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
In the pictureA king's head made of reddish quartzite sits on a stand. What survives includes the striped headdress over the forehead with traces of a cobra ornament at its center, large eyes, broad cheekbones and a closed mouth; the tip of the nose has broken off. The surface is worn rough in places, but the contours of the face remain clear. It is 18 cm high.
BackgroundNo name survives, but the form of the headdress and the features of the face suggest a king of the late 12th Dynasty, in the 19th–18th century B.C. Royal portraits of this period, such as those of Senwosret III and Amenemhat III, are known for serious, aging faces, and this head shows the same trend in the tension around the mouth and the sagging beneath the eyes. Quartzite is hard but fine-grained, which suited the carving of a face.
Puzzle tipThe stripes of the headdress are the clues to position. Fit the eye, nose and mouth pieces first, then sort the striped pieces into left and right by their direction (vertical on the front, diagonal on the sides). Fill the gray background starting with the pieces that catch the rounded outline of the head. 48 pieces works well.
- Period
- Middle Kingdom
- Dynasty
- first part of Dynasty 13
- Medium
- Quartzite
- Dimensions
- H. 18.3 cm (7 3/16 in.); W. 13.3 cm (5 1/4 in.); D. 17 cm (6
- Credit line
- Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, 1912
Source: The Metropolitan Museum of Art ↗
Stories about this work
- Four Egyptian 12th Dynasty Royal Sculptures Recognizable as Royalty Without a Name
Even when the name is lost, a headdress worn in place of a crown and a cobra on the brow reveal royalty. Four sculptures of nameless kings and queens.
