id: 149594 accession number: 1979.2 share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1979.2 updated: 2019-07-11 08:00:58.875000 Head of King Userkaf, c. 2454-2447 BC. Egypt, Old Kingdom, Dynasty 5, reign of Userkaf. Painted limestone; 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.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. Fund 1979.2 title: Head of King Userkaf title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: c. 2454-2447 BC creation date earliest: 2454 creation date latest: 2447 current location: 107 Egyptian creditline: Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. Fund copyright: --- culture: Egypt, Old Kingdom, Dynasty 5, reign of Userkaf technique: painted limestone department: Egyptian and Ancient Near Eastern Art collection: Egypt - Old Kingdom type: Sculpture find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS --- measurements: 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.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: Portraiture: The Image of the Individual opening date: 1983-11-22T05:00:00 Portraiture: The Image of the Individual. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 22, 1983-January 22, 1984). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS * The Year in Review for 1979, Cleveland Museum of Art, (February 13 - March 9, 1980). --- PROVENANCE Formerly in the collection of Prince Mohammed Ali, Cairo. date: ?-1950 footnotes: citations: E. G. Massey, Geneva date: 1950-1972 footnotes: citations: Marianne Maspero, Paris, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art date: 1972-1979 footnotes: citations: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH date: 1979- footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: 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. digital description: wall description: 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. --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS Lee, Sherman E. "The Year in Review for 1979." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 67, no. 3 (March 1980): 58-99. page number: No. 1, Illus. p. 63 url: https://www.jstor.org/stable/25159667 “Principales Acquisitions Des Musées En 1979.” Gazette Des Beaux Arts, March 1980, 1–79. page number: p. 26, no. 138 url: Cleveland Museum of Art, and Adele Z. Silver. Guide to the Galleries. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1981. page number: p. 8, fig. 7 url: Kozloff, Arielle P. "Weserkaf, Boy King of Dynasty V." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 69, no. 7 (1982): 211-23. page number: pp. 211-23, figs. 1-3 url: https://www.jstor.org/stable/25159780 Cleveland Museum of Art, and Arielle P. Kozloff. An Introduction to the Art of Egypt in the Cleveland Museum of Art. [Cleveland]: [The Museum], 1970. page number: p. 4 url: Kozloff, Arielle P. "The Egyptian Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art," Newsletter of the American Research Center in Egypt 125 (Spring 1984): 4-13. page number: p. 12 url: Verner, Miroslav. "Les Sculptures de Reneferef Descouvertes a Abousir," Bulletin de L'Institut Français D'Archéologie Orientale 85 (1985). page number: p. 268 url: The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1991. page number: Reproduced: p. 2 url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1991/page/n18 Berman, Lawrence M. "La Collection Egyptienne du Cleveland Museum of Art," Bulletin de la Société Française D'Egyptologie 134 (October 1995): 14-29. page number: p. 27, fig. 8 url: Berman, Lawrence M., and Kenneth J. Bohač. Catalogue of Egyptian Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1999 page number: Mentioned: p. 124-125; Reproduced: p. 124, color p. 44 url: Verner, Miroslav. Abusir XXVIII: The Statues of Raneferef and the Royal Sculpture of the Fifth Dynasty. Prague: Charles University, Faculty of Arts 2017. page number: Reproduced: p. 37-39 url: --- IMAGES web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1979.2/1979.2_web.jpg print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1979.2/1979.2_print.jpg full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1979.2/1979.2_full.tif