Head From a Shabti (Funerary Figurine) of Queen Tiye

New Kingdom, Dynasty 18, Reign of Akhenaten (about 1353–1336 BCE)

Egyptian

The form of the crown, full lips, down-turned edges of the mouth and almond-shaped eyes identify this fragment as Queen Tiye. She was the influential wife of pharaoh Amunhotep III. This head may originally have come from a statuette made during the reign of her son, Akhenaten.

Status: On View, Gallery 50
Department: Arts of Africa

Culture: Ancient Egyptian
Title: Head From a Shabti (Funerary Figurine) of Queen Tiye
Place: Egypt (Object made in)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1353 BCE–1336 BCE
Medium: Travertine (Egyptian alabaster) and pigment
Dimensions: 7.6 × 5.8 × 2.6 cm (3 × 2 1/4 × 1 in.)
Credit Line: Gift of Henry H. Getty, Charles L. Hutchinson, and Norman W. Harris
Reference Number: 1892.232
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/120294/manifest.json

Thomas George Allen, A Handbook of the Egyptian Collection (Chicago: The Art Institute of Chicago, 1923), p. 54 (ill.).
Arielle P. Kozloff and Betsy M. Bryan, eds., Egypt’s Dazzling Sun: Amenhotep III and His World, exh. cat. (Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art; Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1992), p. 210 note 7.
Karen Alexander, “The New Galleries of Ancient Art at the Art Institute of Chicago,” Minerva, 5, 3 (May/June 1994), p. 29, fig. 2 (ill.).
Emily Teeter, “Egyptian Art,” in Ancient Art at the Art Institute of Chicago, The Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies, 20, 1 (1994), p. 21, no. 5 (ill.).
Marianne Eaton-Krauss, “The Head from a Shabti of Queen Tiye in Chicago,” Orientalia N.S., 75, 1 (2006), pp. 84-90, tab. IX-X (ill.).
Heike C. Schmidt, “Die Rolle der Gebrüder Brugsch im ägyptischen Antikenhandel,” in Mosse im Museum: Die Stiftungstätigkeit des Berliner Verlegers Rudolf Mosse (1843-1920) für das ägyptische Museum Berlin, ed. Jana Helmbold-Doyé and Thomas L. Gertzen, exh. cat. (Staatliche Museen zu Berlin/Hentrich & Hentrich, 2017), pp. 49, 56n49.

Art Institute of Chicago, Ancient Art Galleries, Gallery 154A, April 20, 1994 - February 6, 2012.
Art Institute of Chicago, Life and Afterlife in Ancient Egypt, Feb. 11, 2022 - present.

Émile Brugsch (1842-1930), Bulaq Museum and Egyptian Antiquities Service, Cairo; sold to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1892; price reimbursed by Henry H. Getty and Charles L. Hutchinson, 1892.

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