Head of a King, Possibly Seankhkare Mentuhotep III

The features of this head are closely matched by a relief from Armant, near Thebes, which is housed in the Brooklyn Museum and is inscribed for King Seankhkare Mentuhotep III, son and successor of the great Mentuhotep II. It is, therefore, conceivable that also this head depicts Mentuhatep III. The piece is a notable work from the late phase of a style that was first initiated during the later Old Kingdom and has been nicknamed “second style" (of the Old Kingdom) by Egyptologists. The sculptor conceived the image in a predominantly stylized manner. The mouth—circumscribed by a prominent relief line—can be understood as smiling, but the expression is not communicative; the shape of the ears is unusually abstract; and the elongated, slanting eyes are set unnaturally high in the face, almost eliminating any indication of a forehead. Only the softly rounded surfaces and outline of the cheeks and jaws add animation to the predominantly conceptual image.