This month, Dr Campbell Price brings us face-to-face with some amazing Middle Kingdom portraits!

Monday 12th May on Zoom – doors open 7:30pm (GMT+1).

Free to MAES members; guests welcome via Eventbrite here:

Late Middle Kingdom Royal Faces: Inspiration, Meaning, Reception

Among the most distinctive departures from what we think of as the ‘norms’ of Egyptian art are the striking faces of late 12th Dynasty royal sculptures. Variously characterised as reflecting internal psychology, political propaganda or accurate physiognomy, the faces still arrest our attention. Likely taking inspiration from much earlier sculptures, these faces went on to inspire sculptured visages some 1500 years later. This lecture reviews how Egyptologists have viewed the faces and what their questions can tell us about modern approaches to Pharaonic art.

Dr Campbell Price studied Egyptology at the University of Liverpool, where he is now an Honorary Research Fellow. Since 2011, he has been Curator of Egypt and Sudan at Manchester Museum, part of the University of Manchester, one of the largest collections in the UK. Campbell is also Chair of Trustees of the Egypt Exploration Society and has published widely on ancient Egyptian material culture, including ‘Totally Chaotic History: Ancient Egypt Gets Unruly’ (with Greg Jenner) and ‘Brief Histories: Ancient Egypt’ (Orion Press, 2024).