Cleveland Museum of Art
Votive Head of a King
- Date
- 305–246 BCE
- Medium
- limestone
- Culture
- Egypt, Greco-Roman period (332 BCE–395 CE), reign of Ptolemy II Philadelphus (285–246 BCE)
- Department
- Egyptian and Ancient Near Eastern Art
- Institution
- Cleveland Museum of Art
- Object ID
- 101386
From the Cleveland Museum of Art record
The browband, part of a royal headdress, identifies this fine head as a king. Curiously this head is in limestone, one of very few in this medium. They are fairly common in plaster. This one, apparently in imitation of its plaster prototypes, has been hollowed out; the gouging marks are still clearly visible. The portrait type is most closely associated with Ptolemy II. An exact date, however, is speculative at best as features like this occur as early as Dynasty 29. The purpose of this sculpture is not known; it is assumed that this and others like it were votive offerings in honor of the king.
The authoritative record is held by Cleveland Museum of Art. LinkedCulture surfaces this object and its connections; it does not alter institutional metadata.
Get printable QR codesHide QR codes
Open QR codes for this object page and the museum record. They stay collapsed until needed.
Provenance & credit
As published by the source institution. Coverage varies — not every institution's open-data feed includes ownership history.
- Credit line
- Gift of the John Huntington Art and Polytechnic Trust
- Provenance
- -1920: E.A. Abemayor, Cairo, Egypt, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art through Howard Carter | 1920-: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Part of a LinkedCulture topic
Ancient Egyptian Personal ObjectsThese objects are cosmetic implements and grooming tools from ancient Egypt, including mirrors, palettes for grinding pigments, and decorative knives, representing daily life and personal adornment practices.
476 objects from 5 institutions
Related across collections
Semantically similar works from Cleveland Museum of Art and other institutions.