# Ostracon with a Drawing of a King

- By: Ancient Egyptian
- Date: New Kingdom, mid-Dynasty 19–Dynasty 20, about 1213–1069 BCE
- Medium: Limestone and pigment
- Classification: Painting
- Dimensions: 24.1 × 15.2 × 3.2 cm (9 1/2 × 6 × 1 1/4 in.)
- Culture: Egypt
- Credit line: Museum Purchase Fund
- Museum: [Art Institute of Chicago](https://www.artic.edu/artworks/121738)
- Rights: [Public domain (CC0)](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)
- Picture: https://www.artic.edu/iiif/2/87d3ec5d-e8ff-470d-df8e-49bf1e2bf5e6/full/!1920,1080/0/default.jpg
- Who can see it: Teens profiles and older (museums give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the museum's own words)

Egyptian artists often made sketches on flakes of limestone, called ostraca. This example shows how the preliminary outline was done in red pigment, then corrected, and finished in black. Often these sketches were the work of two craftsmen, a draftsman and a master artist. This ostracon shows a king wearing a crown with streamers and a pleated kilt. He leans on a standard topped with the ram-headed emblem of the god Amun.

Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0