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A BROWN QUARTZITE ROYAL PORTRAIT HEAD FROM A SPHINX
LATE MIDDLE KINGDOM/EARLY NEW KINGDOM, CIRCA 1750-1550 B.C.
The youthful king wearing nemes-headdress and coiled uraeus, sensitively modelled around the eyes and mouth, pronounced philtrum above the sensuous broad lips, wearing royal beard, mounted
4¼ in. (11 cm.) high
LATE MIDDLE KINGDOM/EARLY NEW KINGDOM, CIRCA 1750-1550 B.C.
The youthful king wearing nemes-headdress and coiled uraeus, sensitively modelled around the eyes and mouth, pronounced philtrum above the sensuous broad lips, wearing royal beard, mounted
4¼ in. (11 cm.) high
Exhibited
Le Don du Nil, p. 54, pls 175a-c, no. 175, where it is suggested the head might be Amenophis II.
This identification of the pharaoh is tentative, his youthful broad face and slightly Nubian appearance suggesting an early Middle Kingdom date. There is a close resemblance between this portrait and that of the wooden funerary statues of Senusret I from Lisht in Cairo and the Metropolitan museums (nos. J E 44951 and MMA 14.3.17) which have the same calm, introspective expression, with the concentration on the eyes "the seat of the soul", possibly reflecting the turbulent life of the pharaoh. In The Story of Sinuhe, the young Senusret was on an expedition to Libya when he learnt of the assassination of his father Amenemhat I. He returned in time to take command of the country and inaugurated a large building programme, which included fortifying the area up to the Second Cataract with thirteen impregnable forts, building the small kiosk at Karnak, and restoring the Temple of Re-Atum at Heliopolis.
This identification of the pharaoh is tentative, his youthful broad face and slightly Nubian appearance suggesting an early Middle Kingdom date. There is a close resemblance between this portrait and that of the wooden funerary statues of Senusret I from Lisht in Cairo and the Metropolitan museums (nos. J E 44951 and MMA 14.3.17) which have the same calm, introspective expression, with the concentration on the eyes "the seat of the soul", possibly reflecting the turbulent life of the pharaoh. In The Story of Sinuhe, the young Senusret was on an expedition to Libya when he learnt of the assassination of his father Amenemhat I. He returned in time to take command of the country and inaugurated a large building programme, which included fortifying the area up to the Second Cataract with thirteen impregnable forts, building the small kiosk at Karnak, and restoring the Temple of Re-Atum at Heliopolis.