This tiny head of a queen is adorned with a striated wig, the tresses of which are pushed back behind her ears. The wig is encircled by a striped fabric band (fillet) that supports a double uraeus. A platform rises from her head, its flat and finished upper surface, preserved on the right side of the figure, indicates it was a cylindrical, flat-topped modius crown. The smoothed and polished surface of the preserved section of the crown indicates that it originally did not have carved decoration; however, traces of an orange-red compound and a small flake of gold leaf suggest that it was gilded.^[1] A flat-topped modius crown was usually the base for a more elaborate headdress consisting of cow’s horns, a sun disk, and plumes—elements that are not represented, or at least not preserved, on this small head.1

The queen has a sensuous mouth that is downturned at the corners, with a full lower lip. Traces of red pigment remain on her lips, and black pigment was used to outline her large, almond-shaped eyes and to indicate their irises. Her eyebrows are shown as a raised ridge. Her ear is dimpled as if pierced. Traces of dark blue in her ear suggest that her hair was originally painted.2

Although lacking an inscription, certain features—the full lips with downturned corners and the elongated, almond-shaped eyes—are characteristic of images of Queen Tiye, the wife of Amenhotep III. The double uraeus was worn by a few queens of the New Kingdom from the time of Thutmose III to the end of that period, but it is most common on images of Tiye. Better-preserved examples of the double uraeus show one cobra crowned with the Red Crown of northern Egypt and the other with the White Crown of southern Egypt. Like the kings’ Double Crown, the juxtaposition of the two crowns on the queens’ double uraeus symbolized their rule over both Upper and Lower Egypt.^[2] The double uraeus also signifies the role of queens and goddesses as protectors of the king, aided by the power of the cobra deities.^[3] The heads of the uraei on this example are damaged, and details of crowns or other distinctive headdresses are not preserved.3

Additional Views of Cat. 38

Another example of Queen Tiye wearing the modius crown was discovered at the Mut Temple in 2006.^[4] Other statues of the queen with this headdress show the edges of the modius decorated with rearing, winged uraei, while the example from the Mut Temple has repeating heb sed (jubilee) motifs and cartouches.4

The Life of Queen Tiye

Tiye was one of the great queens of Dynasty 18. She was the wife of Amenhotep III, the mother of Amenhotep IV (later known as Akhenaten), and the mother-in-law of Queen Nefertiti. Tiye was the daughter of another prominent couple—Yuya, a Commander of the Chariotry, and his wife, Thuya, whose tomb was discovered in the Valley of the Kings in 1905.^[5] The richness of their tomb’s furnishings, with their multiple, gold-covered wood coffins, furniture, and gilded chariot, is a reflection of the status of their daughter. Many representations of the queen are known, and she often appeared alongside her husband, a mark of her power. After the death of Amenhotep III, Tiye remained a prominent presence at the court of her son Amenhotep IV (later known as Akhenaten). Her influence is attested by a letter that Tushratta, the king of Mitanni, wrote directly to her to ensure that cordial relations between the two kingdoms would continue during her son’s reign.^[6]5

Original Context

This fragment has been identified as part of a shabti, a figurine left in the tomb to perform labor for the deceased (for a reconstruction, see fig. 1).^[7] Few shabtis are known for Queen Tiye. Some were recovered from the clearance of the tomb of Amenhotep III (KV 22) in the Valley of the Kings by Howard Carter in 1915; others have been recovered as recently as the 1990s by the Japanese expedition to that tomb.^[8] Queen Tiye died at Amarna; her burial was later transferred to the Valley of the Kings in Thebes after the death of her son Akhenaten. There is considerable debate about whether Queen Tiye was buried in KV 22 with her husband, or in the mysterious KV 55 that contained an Amarna-era coffin, mummy, and burial goods.^[9]6

The shabtis of Queen Tiye must have been made after the death of her husband, since the fragments that bear inscriptions refer to her as the “King’s Mother” (in reference to Akhenaten) rather than the “Great Royal Wife” (of Amenhotep III).^[10] The use of gold to decorate royal stone shabtis is very rare, but has been noted on examples made for Amenhotep III.^[11]7

For more on shabtis and ushabtis, see About Shabtis and Ushabtis.8

Provenance

Émile Brugsch (1842–1930), Bulaq Museum and Egyptian Antiquities Service, Cairo; sold to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1892.9

Publication History

Thomas George Allen, A Handbook of the Egyptian Collection (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1923), 54 (ill.).10

Maya Müller, Die Kunst Amenophis’ III und Echnatons (Basel: Verlag für Ägyptologie, 1988), IV-8, IV-9 (as OIM 18021).11

Arielle P. Kozloff and Betsy M. Bryan, Egypt’s Dazzling Sun: Amenhotep III and His World, with Lawrence M. Berman and Elisabeth Delange, exh. cat. (Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1992), 210n7 (as Oriental Institute 92.232).12

Karen B. Alexander, “The New Galleries of Ancient Art at the Art Institute of Chicago,” Minerva 5, no. 3 (May–June 1994): 29, fig. 2.13

Emily Teeter, “Egyptian Art,” in “Ancient Art at the Art Institute of Chicago,” special issue, Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies 20, no. 1 (1994): 21, no. 5 (ill.).14

Jaromír Málek, Diana Magee, and Elizabeth Miles, Topographical Bibliography of Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic Texts, Statues, Reliefs and Paintings, vol. 8, Objects of Provenance Not Known, pt. 2, Private Statues (Dynasty XVIII to the Roman Period), Statues of Deities (Oxford: Griffith Institute, Ashmolean Museum, 1999), 727–28, no. 801-690-120.15

Marianne Eaton-Krauss, “The Head from a Shabti of Queen Tiye in Chicago,” Orientalia 75, no. 1 (2006): 84–90, pls. 9–10.
16

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 (Berlin: Hentrich and Hentrich, 2017), 49, 56n49.
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