NEW KINGDOM, 18TH DYNASTY, AMARNA PERIOD, CIRCA 1352-1336 B.C.

This diminutive head in late Amarna style has close stylistic associations with products in gypsum plaster and stone from the famous sculptor’s workshop of Thutmose at Amarna. The full lips, softly-modelled nose, rounded chin, and almond-shaped eyes closely resemble a series of female portrait heads in plaster, such as the portrait of a youthful woman, possibly identified as one of Akhenaten's consorts or a princess, now at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, see R. Freed (et al.), Pharaohs of the Sun, Boston 1999, p. 247, no. 140; or the portrait at the British Museum, identified by the wing-shaped mouth and slanted eyes as King Tutankhamun or Queen Ankhesenamun, see E. Russmann (ed.), Eternal Egypt, London, 2001, pp. 141-142, no. 58. Recent studies by Dorothea Arnold and Dimitry Laboury have outlined how such plaster studies may well be durable casts of ephemeral portraits fashioned in malleable clay, part of an artistic process leading to the final sculpting of an idealized portrait in limestone or hard stones like quartzite. This piece may well represent a study at smaller scale based on these plaster casts, perhaps a step in the process toward the completion of a final work representing Nefertiti, Kiya, or one of the daughters of Akhenaten. According to A. Wiese, this head is most likely to depict Queen Nefertiti, see A. Wiese, Antikenmuseum Basel und Sammlung Ludwig, Die Agyptische Abteilung, Mainz am Rhein, 2001, p. 121, no. 80. The head was also previously identified as Meritaten, the eldest daughter of Akhenaten and Queen Nefertiti by G. Roeder in Ägyptische Kunst aus der Zeit des Königs Echnaton, p. 20.