Idi was a high official of the Sixth Dynasty, possibly identical with a vizier of the name name buried at Abydos. The animation of his face's large features and the minimal modeling of his body are elements of a style that originated late in the Fifth Dynasty at Saqqara and spread during the Sixth Dynasty to the provinces.
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Artwork Details
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Title:Statue of Idi
Period:Old Kingdom
Dynasty:Dynasty 6
Date:ca. 2200 B.C.
Geography:From Egypt; Possibly from Northern Upper Egypt, Abydos
Medium:Limestone
Dimensions:H. 39.2 × W. 13.1 × D. 20.4 cm (15 7/16 × 5 3/16 × 8 1/16 in.)
Credit Line:Rogers Fund, 1937
Accession Number:37.2.2
Given to Commodore Matthew C. Perry by the Egyptian Khedive. Passed through the Perry family to Miss Jane Perry Tiffany (granddaughter of Perry). Purchased from Miss Tiffany by the Museum, 1937.
Hayes, William C. 1938. "Two Egyptian Statuettes." In The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, vol. 33, no. 4 (April), pp. 107–108, fig. 1.
Scott, Nora E. 1946. Egyptian Statuettes. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, fig. 4.
Smith, W. Stevenson 1946. History of Egyptian Sculpture and Painting in the Old Kingdom. Boston and Oxford, p.88.
Hayes, William C. 1953. Scepter of Egypt I: A Background for the Study of the Egyptian Antiquities in The Metropolitan Museum of Art: From the Earliest Times to the End of the Middle Kingdom. Cambridge, Mass.: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, p. 112.
Aldred, Cyril 1970. "Some Royal Portraits of the Middle Kingdom in Ancient Egypt." In Metropolitan Museum Journal, 3, p. 30, fig. 2.
Fischer, Henry G. 1977. The Orientation of Hieroglyphs, Egyptian Studies, 2. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, p. 27, note 76.
Metropolitan Museum of Art 1977. Ancient Egypt in the Metropolitan Museum Journal, 1–11. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, pp. 3–4, fig. 2.
Fischer, Henry G. 1995. "The Protodynastic Period and Old Kingdom in the Metropolitan Museum of Art." In Kunst des Alten Reiches: Symposium im Deutschen Archäologischen Institut Kairo am 29. und 30. Oktober 1991, p. 85, n. 36; p. 87, Pl. 27b–d.
Thomas, Nancy, Catharine H. Roehrig, Marsha Hill, James P. Allen, and Peter Brand 1995. The American Discovery of Ancient Egypt. Los Angeles, p. 82, no. 4 (MH).
Russmann, Edna R. 1995. "A Second Style in Egyptian Art of the Old Kingdom." In Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts Abteilung Kairo, 51, n. 83.
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The Met's collection of ancient Egyptian art consists of approximately 26,000 objects of artistic, historical, and cultural importance, dating from the Paleolithic to the Roman period.
