Egyptian sculpture

The scale changes quickly in Room 4. Colossal heads rise above visitors, while smaller figures and carved inscriptions ask you to move closer. The Rosetta Stone and the Colossal bust of Ramesses II are two starting points within a much longer history of Egyptian sculpture. These works once belonged to temples and tombs. Statues could provide a lasting presence for a god, king or official. Names and dedications tied the carved body to a particular person and purpose. On the bust of Ramesses II, the natural colour of the stone also helped shape the royal image. The gallery’s fragments came from larger statues, buildings and monuments. A broken edge can show where an object once continued. The Sphinx beard is one such fragment, separated from a monument that remains at Giza. Compare the size of a surviving head or hand with the whole figure it once helped form.