Old Kingdom Royal Sculpture

     At the beginning of the Old Kingdom royal statuary was still a bit blocky and not overly elegant. A good example of this is the granite head of the late Third Dynasty to early Fourth Dynasty statue shown here.

     The head is slightly larger than life-size and shows the king wearing the white crown. The face has rather indistinct features and a rather "brooding" expression. Notice also the impossibly large ears.

     This head, which is now in the Brooklyn Museum reminds me of similar ones I have seen from this time period (in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston for instance).  The provenance of this head is unknown.

     Based on this statue it is rather hard to believe that in just a few years Egyptian sculptors will produce the exquisite statues of the Pharaoh Menkara that were found in that king's funerary temple at Giza.