Colossal statue of Amenhotep III and Tiye
| Colossal statue of Amenhotep III and Tiye | |
|---|---|
 The statue in the hall of the Egyptian Museum | |
| Year | c. 1360 BCE |
| Medium | limestone |
| Subject | Amenhotep III Tiye Henuttaneb Nebetah unknown princess |
| Dimensions | 7 m (height) × 4,4 m (width) (23 ft × 14,4 ft ) |
| Location | Egyptian Museum, Cairo |
The colossal statue of Amenhotep III and Tiye is a monolith group statue of
Description
The statue is made of
The three smaller figures depict three of their daughters. Princess Henuttaneb, standing between her parents, is depicted as a grown woman,[5] in a close-fitting dress and a full wig with modius and plumes but without uraei (this is the only difference between her mother's headdress and hers).[3] Next to Amenhotep stands the damaged figure of a younger daughter, Nebetah, while next to Tiye stands the even more damaged figure of another princess, whose name has been lost. The dyad is one of only two known statues depicting Henuttaneb, and the only one of Nebetah.[2]
The statue is likely to have been carved around the first sed festival of Amenhotep III. Arielle Kozloff writes that the age of the daughters depicted on the monument, especially that of Henuttaneb, and the style of Queen Tiye's wig, which was "at its most developed, nearly shrouding her face" suggests that the statue was made during the third decade of the king's reign. It is possible that it was made from the good quality limestone which was removed to create the open courtyard of TT192 – a huge tomb belonging to Queen Tiye's steward Kheruef, work on which was started around this time.[6]
The eldest daughter of the royal couple, Sitamun is absent from the statue group, probably because she was elevated to the rank of great royal wife by Year 30 of Amenhotep's reign.[5] Henuttaneb was the second or third daughter, born either before or after Iset, who became queen in Year 34. Henuttaneb is nowhere mentioned as a queen, but on this colossus she is described as "the companion of Horus, who is in his heart". This is the only instance of this queenly title being given to a princess, and her name is sometimes written in a cartouche, which may indicate that she was elevated to queen like Sitamun and Iset.[7] The third princess on the statue, whose name is destroyed is sometimes tentatively identified as Iset, but Amenhotep may have had as many as sixteen daughters, not all of whom are known to us.[8]
History
The statue belonged to the
A 27,6 cm limestone head, found in a private collection, turned out to be the head of Princess Nebetah and a part of this statue. Nebetah wears a round wig and a modius headdress; traces of the sidelock of youth can still be discovered. She has the same almond-shaped eyes with finely carved eyebrows and cosmetic lines as the other figures of the group. The head is likely to have been intentionally removed from the statue group, probably in the medieval period, exposed on the ground for quite a long time – as it is in a worse condition than the rest of the statue –, and was found before 1897 when the rest of the statue was moved from its place. It belonged to a French private collection in the early 20th century, was exhibited as part of the W. Arnold Meijer Collection in Amsterdam in 2005-2006 and was sold for US$206,500 in 2008. An exact copy of the head was attached to the statue in Cairo.[8]
In 2011, several new fragments of the statue were found during a rescue excavation before installation of a new sewage system on the west bank of Luxor. These could be reconstructed to form six missing parts of the statue, including part of headdress, chest and right leg of the king, part of wig, left arm, palm, fingers and leg of the queen, and part of the statue base, with a Nubian prisoner. Due to the fragments not having any inscriptions on them, they were initially difficult to date, but Amenhotep III was the only Eighteenth dynasty pharaoh who had colossal statues of this size and they were found only in his mortuary temple and at Medinet Habu; this helped to match the pieces to the colossus in the Cairo museum. With the newly found parts added the statue is 70% complete.[11][12]
See also
References
- ^ a b W. Raymond Johnson: Monuments and Monumental Art under Amenhotep III. In: Amenhotep III: Perspectives on His Reign. (edited by David O'Connor, Eric H. Cline) p.73
- ^ ISBN 9789771721833, p.183
- ^ ISBN 978-0-7103-0449-0p.69
- ISBN 9789004158573, p.36
- ^ a b Arielle Kozloff: Amenhotep III: Egypt's Radiant Pharaoh. Cambridge University Press, Feb 20, 2012. 9781139504997 p.193
- ^ Kozloff, op.cit., p.155
- ^ Dorothea Arnold, Metropolitan Museum of Art: Royal Women of Amarna, p.9
- ^ a b c "An Indurated Limestone Head of Princess Nebetah, reign of Amenhotep III, 1390-1353 B.C." Archived from the original on 2018-03-02. Retrieved 2018-03-01.
- ^ Grimal, Nicolas (1992). A History of Ancient Egypt. Blackwell Books. p.224
- ^ Bryan, op.cit., p.33
- ^ Zahi Hawass, Abdel Ghaffar Wagdy, Mohamed Abdel Badea: The Discovery of the Missing Pieces of the Statue of Amenhotep III and Queen Tiye at the Egyptian Museum, Cairo.
- ^ Nevine Al Aref (2011-01-09). "Parts of Amenhotep III's double statue uncovered in Luxor". Ahram Online. Retrieved 2018-03-01.