Metropolitan Museum of Art — Egyptian Art (Open Access) · statue

Seated Statue of King Menkaure

Source of record: Metropolitan Museum of Art — Egyptian Art (Open Access) — catalogued by the holding institution. View the original record →

Description

Indurated limestone

AI image analysis claude-haiku-4-5

Machine-generated from the object's image on May 2026. Not curatorial; treat deities, names, and signs below as the model's best reading, not authority.

A seated limestone statue of an Old Kingdom pharaoh with the formal regalia of a nemes headdress and traditional kilt, hands positioned on the lap in a classic pose.

This is a well-preserved limestone seated statue depicting a male figure in the classical Old Kingdom royal style. The subject wears a nemes headdress with a uraeus (cobra) element visible on the brow, consistent with royal iconography. The figure is depicted in the iconic seated pose with hands resting on the lap, wearing what appears to be a traditional pharaonic kilt. The face exhibits the idealized proportions characteristic of Old Kingdom royal statuary, with a serene expression and formal frontality. The carving demonstrates accomplished technique with clear definition of facial features and body musculature. The statue shows the formal, hieratic style typical of royal funerary sculpture from the Giza plateau during the 4th Dynasty. The surface exhibits some weathering and patina consistent with considerable age.

royal Old Kingdom, 4th Dynasty (circa 2530 BCE) good
Royals Menkaure
Materials indurated limestone

Connections

Found at Giza
Royals Menkaure

Cross-references (4)

  • Wikidata-Q Q116252239 tier-1
  • Collection-QID Q160236 tier-2 (wikidata-mediated)
  • Inventory-Number 37.6.1 tier-2 (wikidata-mediated)
  • MET-Object 543935 tier-2 (wikidata-mediated)
About this record's data
  • From the source institution — accession, description, dimensions, and dating are as catalogued by Metropolitan Museum of Art — Egyptian Art (Open Access).
  • AI-inferred — the image-analysis panel (deities, names, signs) is machine-generated and may be wrong.
  • Approximate location — most map points are plotted at the site centroid, not the exact findspot.
  • Inferred links — cross-references marked with a match method other than explicit-source-field were matched by us, not stated by the source.