Head of a statue Amenemhet III with Upper Egyptian crown

The basic idea of the royal roundel of the Middle Kingdom is the contemporary portrait of the rulers. This is most evident in the representations of Sesostris III and Amenemhet III. They are an expression of power-political determination and pronounced self-consciousness. Although Amenemhet III’s head follows a typical depiction pattern, on the one hand, due to the Egyptian tradition that the perpetrator seeks to preserve, on the other hand there is a realistic portrait that emphasizes the once-and-instantaneous. Instead of an ideal portrait, the individual portrait takes place here, despite some formal acquisitions from the oldest times. Since the middle of the 12th dynasty, the wide-ranging eyes with external corners of the eye reaching almost the temples, the large, standing ears and the distinctive jochlegs are typical. Origin information: Ammenemes III (Amenemhet III) Provenance unknown (Egypt) donation James Simon, 1906 (Egyptian museum and collection of papyrus)