Inlay Depicting the Face of a King
Ptolemaic Period (332–30 BCE)
Medium
Glass
Dimensions
2 × 1.3 × 0.5 cm (3/4 × 1/2 × 3/16 in.)
Classification
inlay
Department
Arts of Africa
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
631
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
Figures of the king or the gods made of pieces of brightly colored glass appeared about 1350 B.C. and continued to be made into the Ptolemaic period. The color follows the tradition in Egyptian art of depicting the skin of men as red.
About the Artist
Ancient Egyptian
Ancient Egyptian artists, a collective of highly skilled artisans spanning over three millennia from the Predynastic period (c. 6000–3150 BC) to the Roman era (30 BC–4th century AD), produced some of humanity's most enduring masterpieces. These anonymous craftsmen, often organized in state-sponsored workshops, lived in dedicated communities like Deir el-Medina near Luxor during the New Kingdom (c....