Head of King Userkaf (c. 2454–2447 BCE): Art, History and Details

Head of King Userkaf (c. 2454–2447 BCE) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Despite the monumental achievements of the Old Kingdom’s Pyramid Age, few images of its rulers survive. This head has been identified as King Userkaf, the first king of Dynasty 5. Userkaf built a modest pyramid at Saqqara and a temple to the sun god Ra at Abusir. According to later tradition, the first three kings of Dynasty 5 were the children of Ra himself and a mortal woman. From Userkaf’s reign on, the kings of Egypt were called "Sons of Ra." Here, Userkaf wears the two basic items of regalia that identify him as king: the tall, conical White Crown of Upper (southern) Egypt, and the royal false beard.

Object facts

• Title: Head of King Userkaf
• Date: c. 2454–2447 BCE
• Culture: Egypt, Old Kingdom (2647–2124 BCE), Dynasty 5, reign of Userkaf (2496–2491 BCE)
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: painted limestone
• Dimensions: Overall: 6.5 x 7.2 cm (2 9/16 x 2 13/16 in.); Face: 4.8 x 4.8 cm (1 7/8 x 1 7/8 in.)
• Collection: Egypt - Old Kingdom
• Department: Egyptian and Ancient Near Eastern Art
• Accession number: 1979.2

A detail from the museum

Visible chisel marks on the side of the crown imply that another figure once stood to the king's right; only a god or goddess could have stood in this prominent position.

Collection credit

Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Lee, Sherman E. "The Year in Review for 1979." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 67, no. 3 (March 1980): 58-99.
• “Principales Acquisitions Des Musées En 1979.” Gazette Des Beaux Arts, March 1980, 1–79.
• Cleveland Museum of Art, and Adele Z. Silver. Guide to the Galleries. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1981.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.