Lady Tjepu

One of the most remarkable paintings to survive from ancient Egypt, this depiction of the noblewoman Tjepu came from a tomb built for her son Nebamun and a sculptor named Ipuky.

Egyptian artists usually did not depict individuals as they truly looked, but rather as eternally youthful, lavishly dressed, and in an attitude of repose.

Tjepu was about forty years old when this painting was executed, but she is shown in what was the height of youthful fashion during the reign of Amunhotep III: a perfumed cone on her heavy wig, a delicate side tress, and a semitransparent, fringed linen dress.

Fragmentary painting on whitewash over mudplaster of the upper part of a female figure identified through the remains of a text above the back of her head as Thepu, mother of Nebamun of Thebes. She has an ointment cone on her head; one arm is raised, the other hand holds a menat.

The hair is black; she wears over an undergarment a white diaphanous shawl which leaves one breast bare.

New Kingdom, 18th Dynasty, reign of Amenhotep III, ca. 1391-1353 BC.
Medium: limestone, gesso and pigment. Dimensions: 14 13/16 x 9 7/16 in. (37.6 x 24 cm).
From Thebes. Now in the Brooklyn Museum. 65.197