Ankhhaf (sculpture)

The painted limestone bust of Ankhhaf is considered the work "of a master" of Ancient Egyptian art from the time of the Old Kingdom, and can be seen at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. [Berman, Lawrence, Freed, Rita E., and Doxey, Denise. Arts of Ancient Egypt. Museum of Fine Arts Boston. 2003. p.78. ISBN 0878466614.] Its catalog number is Museum Expedition 27.442.

It depicts a mature man and was therefore likely made during the reign of Khafre (circa 2520-2494 BC), is a nearly unique glimpse of the features of an actual person, as sculptures portraying true likenesses of people (rather than stylized idealistic portrayals) are rare in Ancient Egyptian art. [Berman, Lawrence, Freed, Rita E., and Doxey, Denise. Arts of Ancient Egypt. Museum of Fine Arts Boston. 2003. p.78. ISBN 0878466614.] Plaster covers a limestone core, which has been painted red, a colour commonly given to males in both sculpture and in reliefs (figures of women were typically painted yellow). The face is stern, with a slightly uneven mouth which makes him appear as though he is smirking from one side, and aloof and impersonal from the other. There is a slight droop to the eyelids, whose eyes were once painted white with brown pupils. The figure once had a beard and ears, which were broken away in antiquity along with part of the figure's nose. [Berman, Lawrence, Freed, Rita E., and Doxey, Denise. Arts of Ancient Egypt. Museum of Fine Arts Boston. 2003. p.78. ISBN 0878466614.]

The bust was discovered in his tomb, installed within a small chapel oriented to the east and facing the chapel's doorway. His arms may have been sculpted on the small pedestal on which it sat, though these have been lost. It was evident that it had once been the focus of a funerary cult, as the bust had crushed several small pottery vessels of the type used for offerings when it fell in antiquity from its pedestal. [Roehrig, Catherine H. "The Reserve Heads of the Old Kingdom: A Theory", Egyptian Art in the Age of the Pyramids. Yale University Press. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1999. p.234 ISBN 0-87099-907-9]

The bust was discovered by a museum expedition funded jointly by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and Harvard University, and under the contract of the time, such a fine piece would normally have found a home at the Cairo Museum. However, this piece was awarded as thanks for the extensive work done by this expedition and the discovery of the intact royal tomb of Queen Hetepheres, who may have been Ankhhaf's mother. More recently, Zahi Hawass, the chief of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, has asked that this piece be repatriated to Egypt, as one of five key items belonging to Egypt's cultural heritage, a list which also includes the iconic bust of Nefertiti in the Egyptian Museum of Berlin, a statue of the Great Pyramid architect Hemiunu in the Roemer-und-Pelizaeus-Museum in Hildesheim, Germany, and the Dendara Temple Zodiac in the Louvre in Paris. ["Antiquities wish list" Al-ahram Weekly Online 14 - 20 July 2005 http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2005/751/eg7.htm]

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