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Expert’s note
The identification of the two women as ladies-in-waiting of the Amarna royal court is supported by two remarkably close reliefs in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
The most important comparison is a limestone relief of Male and Female Attendants, dating to the reign of Akhenaten and probably originally from Amarna (fig. 1). The Met explicitly identifies the women as ladies-in-waiting. They follow male attendants as members of the royal entourage and carry ostrich-feather fans. The correspondence with the present fragment is particularly close: the women wear similarly close-fitting pleated garments, display the characteristic elongated hands of Amarna art, and the principal figure holds the long handle of a fan, the feathers of which were originally situated in the now-lost upper section of the relief.
A second relief provides the wider context (fig. 2). It depicts the much larger figure of Queen Nefertiti followed by bowing male courtiers and a row of three ladies-in-waiting. Their smaller scale and ordered arrangement demonstrate their position within the carefully structured hierarchy of the Amarna royal entourage.
The term “lady-in-waiting” is used here in the Egyptological sense for elite female attendants attached to the royal household. These were not ordinary servants. They accompanied members of the royal family during ceremonial and public appearances. Particularly significant is the long kerchief held by the smaller woman on the present fragment: the Met notes that the courtiers on the closely related relief carry long kerchiefs as markers of their status.
The identification is further supported by the 2012 expertise of Jean-Louis Domercq, who attributed the relief to the Amarna period and Hermopolis and cited John D. Cooney’s Amarna Reliefs from Hermopolis in American Collections (Brooklyn Museum, 1965), specifically the parallels entitled “Ladies in waiting” and “Attendants of the Royal Family.”
Taken together, the evidence is compelling: the Amarna style, female court dress, ceremonial fan, status kerchief, scale and arrangement of the figures, and the close parallels from the Hermopolis/Amarna corpus identify the two women as members of Akhenaten’s royal entourage – specifically as ladies-in-waiting.
Egypt, Amarna Period, Dynasty XVIII, reign of Akhenaten, circa 1353-1335 BC. Carved in sunk relief with two ladies-in-waiting advancing to the left, their fragmentary bodies preserved from the chest downward. Both wear finely pleated linen garments closely following the contours of their bodies. The larger figure at left holds the long handle of a ceremonial fan, originally surmounted by ostrich feathers, while the smaller attendant behind her gathers a long kerchief in her hand. Their softly rounded thighs, prominent abdomens, narrow waists, and elongated fingers are characteristic of the distinctive court style developed under Akhenaten.
Provenance: The private collection of Jean Lebon, before 1978. With Galerie du Sycomore, Paris, France, acquired from the above in 1978. A private collection in Marseille, France, acquired from the above in 2012. Thereafter with Galerie Ghezelbash, Paris, France. A copy of a handwritten purchase note, written and signed by Jean Lebon, addressed to Galerie du Sycomore, dated 18 April 1978, confirming the sale of four Egyptian antiquities, accompanies the lot. A copy of an invoice from Galerie du Sycomore, dated 6 November 2012, confirming the dating above, accompanies the lot. A copy of a certificate of authenticity, written and signed by Jean-Louis Domercq of Galerie du Sycomore, dated 16 November 2012, confirming the dating above, accompanies the lot. The Galerie du Sycomore, founded by Jean-Louis Domercq, opened on the Rue des Beaux-Arts in Paris in 1971 and has since amassed over fifty years of experience in the field of antiquities. In 1993, the gallery relocated to Geneva, Switzerland, as Sycomore Ancient Art, specializing in antiquities. Galerie Ghezelbash is a Paris-based antiquities gallery founded by David Ghezelbash in 2008, following several years working with Jean-Philippe de Serres at Galerie Serres. Located on rue Jacob in Saint-Germain-des-Prés, the gallery specializes in archaeological works from the Mediterranean world, particularly Greek, Roman, Egyptian, Etruscan, and ancient Near Eastern art. Ghezelbash has participated in major international art fairs and is a member of both the Syndicat National des Antiquaires and the International Association of Dealers in Ancient Art.
Condition: Good condition with old wear, commensurate with age. Obvious losses, scattered nicks and scratches, expected weathering, signs of erosion, and encrustations.
French Export Licenses: Certificat d’exportation pour un bien culturel, nr. 125050, dated 1 March 2011, and nr. 260567, dated 30 April 2026, have been granted. Copies of these two documents accompany this lot.
Art Loss Register: ALR Ref. S00049449, dated 21 June 2011. A copy of the certification document accompanies the lot.
Weight: 4.2 kg (incl. stand)
Dimensions: Length 27 cm (excl. stand), Height 28.2 cm (incl. stand)
Mounted on an associated stand. (2)
Talatats, standardized limestone blocks of relatively uniform size and weight, were used extensively in the construction and decoration of temples at Amarna. After the city was abandoned, many were dismantled and reused as building fill and foundations in later monuments. The present relief probably comes from Hermopolis, approximately 25 kilometers north of Amarna, where relief blocks from the disfavored former capital were repurposed during the later 18th and 19th Dynasty buildings.
This grouping of ladies-in-waiting is a standard detail of scenes centering on the royal family. It occurs in several of the Amarna tombs in such a range of styles that it is certain these scenes were executed by different artists. It is equally clear that, however much these groups differ in style and competence of execution, they are all based on the same composition in a master pattern book.
The ladies carry slender staffs which ended in a papyrus-umbel, surely one of the most beautiful terminals ever developed. These were topped with ostrich plumes and when so completed must have given any royal outing an air of great elegance. All attendants, men and ladies alike, carry as well the extra kerchief which was standard equipment for almost all personages connected with waiting on the royal family. The prevalence of this detail, one of the minor characteristics of Amarna relief work, is probably due to the desire of the Amarna artists to find some occupation for their subject's hands, a problem that has followed artists through the ages.
Literature comparison:
Compare a closely related relief showing the Aten interacting with the queen, New Kingdom, Amarna Period, Dynasty 18, 44.5 cm wide, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, object number 1993.326. Compare two closely related relief fragment showing ladies-in-waiting, 26.7 cm and 54 cm wide, illustrated by John Cooney in Amarna Reliefs from Hermopolis in American Collections, 1965, no. 20 and 19.
Auction result comparison:
Type: Closely related
Auction: Sotheby’s New York, 11 June 2010, lot 7
Price: USD 230,500 or approx. EUR 307,000 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing
Description: An Egyptian Limestone Relief Fragment, Amarna, 18th Dynasty, late in the reign of Akhenaten, circa 1340-1335 B.C.
Expert remark: Compare the closely related modeling of the slender hands and elegant fingers. Note the size (22 x 26 cm).
Auction result comparison:
Type: Closely related
Auction: Christie’s New York, 4 June 2008, lot 8
Price: USD 182,500 or approx. EUR 242,000 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing
Description: An Egyptian limestone relief, New Kingdom, Late Dyansty XVIII
Expert remark: Compare the modeling of the slender hands and elegant fingers. Note the size (27.9 cm).
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