Head from a Statuette of a Man

The idealized features defining this portrait, together with the lack of an inscription on the back pillar, make it impossible to recognize in this youthful male head any known official serving during the first Achaemenid period. The tight-fitting cap is characteristic of images of Imhotep, an example of which is on display in the exhibition, thus suggesting the possibility that the official depicted deliberately commissioned his portrait to resemble the deified architect of the Third Dynasty.

Antiquities from the Collection of Christos G. Bastis. New York, 1987. 65-66, no. 23.