egypt-museum:

Statue of Ranefer

A statue depicts the young Ranefer as a handsome, athletic and a muscular man wearing a short kilt tied at the waist and a simple short wig. He is portrayed in the traditional pose, advancing with the left leg forward, his hands by his sides holding two cylinders, having a serious expression and a look which is gazing into the distance beyond earthly life.

This splendid statue was found with another statue for him too, almost identical, in two niches in the chapel at his tomb at Saqqara. This one shows him in the flush of youth while the other in old age.

Ranefer was a High Priest of Ptah and Seker in Memphis at the end of the 4th and the beginning of the 5th Dynasty. His name means “Ra is beautiful”. His main title was “greatest of the directors of craftsmen belonging to the day of festival”. This is a variation of the title normally assigned to the High Priest of Ptah.

Old Kingdom, 5th Dynasty, ca. 2494-2345 BC. Painted limestone, from Saqqara Necropolis. Now in the Egyptian Museum, Cairo. JE 10063