Face from a Composite Statue, probably Queen Tiye

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This quartzite head once belonged to a composite statue made of several different materials. Based on the color of the stone (red being the conventional color for men), the owner was originally identified as Akhenaten. However, the subject seems to have worn the standard tripartite wig, which frames the face with two thick hanks of hair while a third section hangs down the back. This wig and the very close similarity of the face to known images of Akhenaten's mother, Queen Tiye, make it virtually certain that she is represented here. The sensitive modeling of the face is typical of the workshop of the sculptor Thutmose at site of Amarna. The existence of gypsum plaster casts excavated in Thutmose's studio suggests that this may have been part of a group statue depicting Akhenaten with his parents, Tiye, and Amenhotep III.

Egyptian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Met collection of ancient Egyptian art consists of approximately 30,000 objects of artistic, historical, and cultural importance, dating from about 300,000 BCE to the 4th century CE. A signifcant percentage of the collection is derived from the Museum's three decades of archaeological work in Egypt, initiated in 1906 in response to increasing interest in the culture of ancient Egypt.

Metropolitan Museum of Art