Ni-ka-re, His Wife, and Their Daughter. Probably Saqqara; Fifth Dynasty, reign of Niuserre (ca. 2420–2389 B.C.E.) or later. Painted limestone; H. 22 1/2 in. (57 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Rogers Fund, 1952 (52.19).

Ni-ka-re's wife, Khuen-nub, is shown in the kneeling pose that had been associated with royal women in the Fourth Dynasty. Their daughter Khuen-nebti, though represented as a nude child, has the body of a young woman. This statue was carved by an artist well trained in the subtle rendering of human anatomy. Two very unusual details are the contracted deltoid muscles, visible as three ridges on the shoulders, and the seventh cervical vertebra carved at the base of the neck in the back.