Votive Head of a King (305–246 BCE): Art, History and Details

Votive Head of a King (305–246 BCE) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

The browband, part of a royal headdress, identifies this fine head as a king. Curiously this head is in limestone, one of very few in this medium. They are fairly common in plaster. This one, apparently in imitation of its plaster prototypes, has been hollowed out; the gouging marks are still clearly visible. The portrait type is most closely associated with Ptolemy II. An exact date, however, is speculative at best as features like this occur as early as Dynasty 29.

Object facts

• Title: Votive Head of a King
• Date: 305–246 BCE
• Culture: Egypt, Greco-Roman period (332 BCE–395 CE), reign of Ptolemy II Philadelphus (285–246 BCE)
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: limestone
• Dimensions: Overall: 21.6 x 16.5 cm (8 1/2 x 6 1/2 in.)
• Collection: Egypt - Ptolemaic Dynasty
• Department: Egyptian and Ancient Near Eastern Art
• Accession number: 1920.1999

A detail from the museum

The purpose of this sculpture is not known; it is assumed that this and others like it were votive offerings in honor of the king.

Collection credit

Gift of the John Huntington Art and Polytechnic Trust

Further reading listed by the museum

• Josephson, Jack A. Egyptian Royal Sculpture of the Late Period, 400-246 B.C. Mainz am Rhein: Verlag Philipp von Zabern, 1997.
• Berman, Lawrence M., and Kenneth J. Bohač. Catalogue of Egyptian Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1999

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.