Head of King Djedefre
Unknown · Reign of Djedefre, c. 2605-2597 BC
The face of a king of the Fourth Dynasty looks out from a block of hard reddish quartzite, his head wrapped in the striped nemes headcloth with the uraeus cobra rearing on his brow. Only the head survives, twenty six centimetres high, broken from a statue that was most likely a sphinx. Traces of red paint remain on the skin. Notice how the sculptor has softened the royal face: the cheekbones are high, the mouth is small and slightly pursed, and the eyes are set beneath gently swelling lids. It is a portrait of authority, calm and rather youthful.
Djedefre was the son of Khufu and ruled for only about eight years around two thousand six hundred BC. He chose to build his pyramid not at Giza but at Abu Rawash to the north, and it was in his funerary complex there that French excavations found this head in nineteen hundred and seven. It came to the Louvre the same year through the division of finds. The complex had been used as a quarry for centuries, so the survival of a royal face in this quality is remarkable, and it is the finest image of the king anywhere.
Did You Know? Djedefre was the son and successor of Khufu, builder of the Great Pyramid, and this head is one of the very few surviving faces of that whole family.
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