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

Details

AN EGYPTIAN LIMESTONE RELIEF WITH MERITATEN
NEW KINGDOM, 18TH DYNASTY, AMARNA PERIOD, CIRCA 1352-1336 B.C.
Sculpted in sunken relief, with Meritaten standing behind her mother Nefertiti, her head shaved but for locks dressed in a sidelock, wearing a large disc earring, her cranium and features characteristically elongated, her arm raised, probably once holding a sistrum, both mother and daughter wearing pleated garments, with white stucco adjuncts applied in antiquity
9 ¼ x 9 ¾ in. (23.5 x 24.8 cm.)

Provenance

with Spink & Son Ltd, London.
Private collection, Rotterdam, acquired from the above 29 May 1961; and thence by descent to the present owner.

Brought to you by

Georgiana Aitken

gaitken@christies.com +44 (0)20 7752 3002

Lot Essay

Meritaten was the eldest daughter of Akhenaten and Queen Nefertiti, born sometime before year five of his reign. She was given the title Great Royal Wife, this title being left empty as Nefertiti ascended to become coregent. As Reeves comments, "Notwithstanding the daughter's tender age and the essentially functional character of the title Great Royal Wife, scholars have long suspected the relationship between Akhenaten and Meritaten to have been a sexual one, resulting in the birth of Meritaten-tasherit ("Meritaten the Younger"). Since, unlike other forms of incest, no divine precedent could convincingly be cited, it was an arrangement that must have appeared abhorrent even to contemporaries" (N. Reeves, 'The Royal Family' in R. E. Freed, Y. J. Markowitz and S. H. D'Auria (eds), Pharaohs of the Sun, Akhenaten, Nefertiti, Tutankhamen, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1999, pp. 93-94).

For similar reliefs with the Amarna princesses cf. Pharaohs of the Sun (op. cit.), pp. 214-226, nos 38, 54, 69 and 72.

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