Monumental Head of a Foreigner

New Kingdom, Ramesside

On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 124

With its short projecting beard, this monumental head portrays the image of an Asiatic man as one of Egypt’s prototypical enemies. Part of a series of such heads, it most probably decorated a window in a palace façade, through which the king would appear overlooking a courtyard. Seeming as if lying below him, these heads would appear as if fallen under the Pharaoh’s dominion. This imagery thereby symbolizes the king’s power to subdue any force of chaos threatening Egypt’s, and therefore the world’s stability.

Monumental Head of a Foreigner, Limestone

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