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Published & Exhibited:
1. Eugène Warmenbol (ed.), Ombres d'égypte: Le peuple de Pharaon, Musée du Malgré-Tout, Treignes, 20 June-12 December 1999, p. 105, catalog number 107.
2. Arnaud Quertinmont (ed.), Dieux, génies et démons en égypte ancienne: à la rencontre d'Osiris, Anubis, Isis, Hathor, Rê et les autres, Musée royal de Mariemont, Morlanwelz, 21 May-20 November 2016, p. 178, catalog number 49.
Expert’s note: The present fragment is particularly notable for combining Hathor’s bovine form with the royal cartouche of Ramesses II and the menat collar. The 1999 publication observes that Hathor appears in fully animal form especially often in votive works, whereas her human or semi-human manifestations dominate temple imagery, supporting the interpretation of the relief as part of a votive stele. The later 2016 catalogue reconstructs the original scene with a blue lotus rising before the goddess’s nostrils above a table of offerings, with a dedicator once standing before it. The menat was both an emblem of fertility and a ritual musical instrument closely associated with Hathor, goddess of love, joy, dance, music, and motherhood. The possible provenance from Deir el-Bahari is especially significant, since numerous votive offerings to Hathor from the sanctuary have been connected with the Beautiful Festival of the Valley.
Egypt, according to the two publications cited above, quite possibly from Deir el-Bahari. Finely carved in sunken relief with the forepart of the goddess Hathor in bovine form facing right, crowned by the solar disk cradled between long curving horns. Her large almond-shaped eye is extended by a cosmetic line, while a broad menat collar composed of multiple beaded strands encircles the neck, its long counterpoise extending across the back. Before her muzzle rises a lotus flower, probably once placed above a table laden with offerings. The field is inscribed with the name of Hathor before the horns. Above the counterweight at the back are preserved the remains of a royal cartouche bearing the name of Ramesses II.
Provenance: The private collection of Jean-Jacques Rotthier, Belgium, by 1999, and thence by descent. Jean-Jacques Rotthier (1932-2009) was a Belgian collector of Egyptian antiquities as well as African and Oceanic art, who began assembling his collection in the 1970s. His interests were shaped by extended stays in Africa and by exchanges with specialists including Bernard de Grunne and Pierre Dartevelle. His Egyptian collection ranged from the Predynastic Period to Roman Egypt, and Rotthier regularly made works available for important exhibitions throughout Europe, including in Brussels, Paris, Amsterdam, and Venice. He collected with particular emphasis on artistic quality and individuality, and his collection remained with his family after his death before being dispersed at auction.
Condition: Good condition, commensurate with age. Fragmentary as preserved, old repairs to one edge, natural cracks and fissures, with expected wear and erosion, scattered chips, nicks, and minor encrustations
Weight: 1,582 g (incl. stand)
Dimensions: Length 19.2 cm, Height 11 cm (excl. stand), 12.5 cm (incl. stand)
Mounted on an associated metal stand. (2)
Deir el-Bahari remained one of the most important sacred landscapes of western Thebes during the reign of Ramesses II. Although its great monuments had been founded centuries earlier by Mentuhotep II and Hatshepsut, the site retained profound associations with Amun, royal regeneration, and the divine legitimacy of kingship. During the Ramesside period, monuments damaged in the Amarna era were restored, reflecting the renewed importance of the traditional cults and sacred landscape of Thebes.
The bovine form of Hathor was particularly important in New Kingdom votive imagery, especially in the Theban necropolis, where the goddess appears receiving offerings, emerging from the western mountain, or protecting the king. The present fragment was likewise interpreted in the published literature as part of a votive stele.
A closely related composition is found on the limestone stela of Abnioutef in the Musée du Louvre, (inventory number E 3468, C 265 and C 296) (fig. 1), showing Hathor as a cow wearing the menat before a table of offerings. The surviving lotus before the muzzle of the present goddess probably belonged to a comparable offering scene, as also suggested in the 2016 publication. A further stela from Deir el-Bahri, now in the British Museum (registration number EA689) (fig. 2), shows the divine cow suckling the king, emphasizing Hathor's protective and nurturing role.
Particularly significant is the stela of Khabekhnet in the British Museum (registration number EA555) (fig. 3), dating to the early reign of Ramesses II. Here Hathor again appears in bovine form, emerging from the western mountain. Together, these stelae place the present fragment firmly within the Ramesside tradition of private devotion to Hathor in western Thebes.
Literature comparison:
Compare a closely related limestone votive stela with three Hathor cows, dated to the joint reign of Hatshepsut and Thutmose III, 12 x 17.5 cm, excavated at Deir el-Bahri and now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, accession number 23.3.47. Compare a closely related limestone fragment of a stela with Hathor in bovine form, similarly wearing a necklace with its counterweight extending over the back, Dynasty 18, 13 x 11 x 3.5 cm, in the Museo Egizio, Turin, inventory number Suppl. 12365. Compare a related limestone relief of Hathor in bovine form wearing a menat, likewise dated to the reign of Ramesses II, 80.5 cm long, in the Musée du Louvre, inventory number E 16276, excavation number Deir el-Medina 1939 no. 6 A and B.
Auction result comparison:
Type: Closely related
Auction: Christie’s London, 3 December 2025, lot 62
Price: GBP 66,040 or approx. EUR 81,000 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing
Description: An Egyptian limestone talatat relief with a bull, New Kingdom, 18th Dynasty, reign of Akhenaten, circa 1351-1334 BC
Expert remark: Compare the closely related style, bovine subject, limestone medium, sunk-relief technique, similarly fine quality of carving, and closely comparable New Kingdom dating, the comparison preceding the present relief by only around a century. Note the somewhat larger size (35.5 cm).
Auction result comparison:
Type: Related
Auction: Sotheby’s New York, 12 December 2013, lot 6
Estimate: USD 27,500 or approx. EUR 34,500 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing
Description: An Egyptian limestone relief fragment, Dynasty 19, reign of Ramesses II, 1279-1213 BC
Expert remark: Compare the closely related Ramesside dating, limestone medium, sunk-relief technique, and fragmentary preservation, as well as the inclusion of the prenomen of Ramesses II within a cartouche. Note the larger size (21.9 x 26.4 cm), different subject, and surviving traces of yellow pigment on the comparison.
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