Brooklyn Museum: Collections: Egyptian, Classical, and Ancient Middle Eastern Art

Head from a Female Sphinx. Found in Italy, said to have been in the ruins of Emperor Hadrian's villa at Tivoli, outside Rome; originally from Egypt, probably Heliopolis. Middle Kingdom, Dynasty 12, reign of Amunemhat II, circa 1876–1842 B.C. Chlorite, 15 5/16 x 13 1/8 x 13 15/16 in. (38.9 x 33.3 x 35.4 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 56.85

The great majority of sphinxes bear the heads of kings on lion bodies. From every period, however, a small number of sphinxes are known with the heads of queens or princesses. This colossal head can be recognized as coming from a sphinx because her hairdo extends horizontally at the back, where it rested along the lion's body. Her modest hair decoration suggests that the woman was a princess rather than a queen. The damages to her face, including the removal of her inlaid eyes, probably occurred before the head left Egypt. In Rome, it was apparently part of Emperor Hadrian's large collection of Egyptian art. The repairs, made with stone taken from the interior of the head, may have been made in the eighteenth century, when the head was in the collection of Cardinal Alessandro Albani in Rome.

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