Practice Sketch or Votive Offering in the Brooklyn Museum, January 2010

Practice Sketch or Votive Offering

The elaborate wig, aquiline nose, fastidious indication of fat folds on the neck, and elongated and downward-sloping eye all indicate that the king depicted here was one of the Ramesside rulers of Dynasty XIX or XX. The several discrepancies between the inked lines and the incisions suggest that the piece was a practice sketch for a wall relief or painting, but it may have also served as a temple offering to the king. Around the crown of the head is an intricate circlet consisting of two uraeus cobras affixed to the brow and side. These cobras were insignias of royalty.

Medium: Limestone

Possible Place Made: Thebes, Egypt

Dates: ca. 1295-1070 B.C.E.

Dynasty: XIX Dynasty-XX Dynasty

Period: New Kingdom

Dimensions: 7 3/8 x 6 1/2 in. (18.8 x 16.5 cm)

Collections: Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art

Museum Location: This item is on view in Egypt Reborn: Art for Eternity, 19th Dynasty to Roman Period, Martha A. and Robert S. Rubin Gallery, 3rd Floor

Accession Number: 16.54

Credit Line: Gift of Evangeline Wilbour Blashfield, Theodora Wilbour, and Victor Wilbour honoring the wishes of their mother, Charlotte Beebe Wilbour, as a memorial to their father, Charles Edwin Wilbour

Text from: www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/3135/Practi...