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Head of a King with a Nemes Headdress

Ptolemaic Period
332–30 BCE
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 134
The rounded, fleshy features of this small limestone head identify it as depicting a Ptolemaic ruler from the first half of the second century BCE. Like many Hellenistic rulers of Egypt, this king chose to represent himself according to traditional Egyptian stylistic conventions, most clearly through the striated nemes headdress adorned with the uraeus cobra. Such imagery provided these foreign rulers with a visual means of establishing continuity with their pharaonic predecessors. Like those of earlier kings, these Ptolemaic heads may have been set up in household shrines or temple chapels.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Head of a King with a Nemes Headdress
  • Period: Ptolemaic Period
  • Date: 332–30 BCE
  • Geography: From Egypt
  • Medium: Limestone
  • Dimensions: H. 3.5 × D. 3.3 × D. 3.1 cm (1 3/8 × 1 5/16 × 1 1/4 in.)
  • Credit Line: Bequest of Nanette B. Kelekian, 2020
  • Object Number: 2021.41.96
  • Curatorial Department: Egyptian Art

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