Unknown Woman from a Pair Statue

Once a limestone statue representing a couple, only the upper half of the female figure survives. Originally they couple was seated, with the lady’s right arm around her husband’s waist, and the left bent at the elbow. The lady’s attire and hairstyle are typical of the fashion after the second half of the 18th Dynasty. She wears an elaborate envelopping wig and a pleated wrap-around garment. Traces of red paint remain on the face and the neck. The back was roughly cut away.

This fragmentary statue of a couple belongs to a well-known tradition of New Kingdom private statuary. The sculpture’s quality, combined with the body’s morphology, suggest a date in the late 18th Dynasty, but a slighty posterior date in the early 19th Dynasty is also possible. Stylistically- and typologically-related artworks discovered in the necropoleis of Saqqara and Asyut suggest that this pair statue was commisionned by members of the elite to adorn their tomb chapel.