#portrait sculpture

Limestone statue of a bearded man wearing a wreath and carrying votive offerings. Artist unknown; ca. 475-450 BCE. From Cyprus; now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Ancient Egyptian block statue (gabbro with traces of pigment) of Neskhemenyu, son of Kapefha. Artist unknown; 4th cent. BCE (early Ptolemaic period). From a cache at the Temple of Amun, Thebes; now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The Young St. John the Baptist, Antonio Rossellino, ca. 1470

Painted wooden ushabti of the scribe Seti. Artist unknown; late 18th or early 19th Dynasty, New Kingdom. Now in the Cleveland Museum of Art.

Ancient Egyptian statuette (cedar, plaster, paint, and linen) of one Wah. Artist unknown; ca. 1981-1975 BCE (early part of the reign of Amenemhat I, 12th Dynasty, Middle Kingdom). Now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Portrait bust (Pentelic marble) of the sophist and orator M. Antonius Polemon from Laodicea in Syria, teacher of Herodes Atticus. At the behest of the Emperor Hadrian, Polemon gave the dedicatory speech at the opening of Athens’ Olympieion (Temple of Olympian Zeus) in 131 CE; this sculpture, by an unknown artist, dates to ca. 140 CE and was found at the Olympieion. Now in the National Archaeological Museum, Athens. Photo credit: Zde/Wikimedia Commons.