This extraordinary and lively relief from a palace scene formerly at Tell el-Amarna, but reused as a foundation block in one of Ramesses II's building at Hermopolis, is similar to one in the Mr. and Mrs. Norbert Schimmel Collection and published in J. D. Cooney, Amarna Reliefs from Hermopolis in American Collections, Brooklyn, 1965, pp. 66-67, no. 42, and described as follows: "This is probably the finest surviving version of a standard scene in Amarna art, female musicians with their instruments ... String quartets with this selection of instruments are always located in palace scenes in Amarna art, apparently composed of women of the Larim ... The grouping of the five bodies at unequal intervals and sometimes slightly overlapping, as individuals in contrast to the earlier diagrammatic form of multiple representation ... was one of the innovations of the Amarna period ... In the incomplete state of this relief the bodies appear nude but to judge by parallels these musicians wore the delicate gauze-like linen dresses of the time. The modeling of their bodies is realistic to a degree that is almost voluptuous, a characteristic almost unknown in earlier Egyptian art and only occasionally present in Egyptian art before the fourth century B.C."

This relief is one of many reliefs found at Hermopolis, whence they had been removed from Tell el Amarna under Ramesses II, which appeared on the market after World War II, and are now in major museums. Hermopolis magna was excavated by Prof. Gnther Roeder in 1939 and subsequently published in G. Roeder, 1500 Amarna Reliefs aus Hermopolis, Hildesheim, 1969, pl. 71, 470-VII; pl. 171, PC10; pl. 193 PC147; pl. 205 PC316.