ABSTRACT
In the secret chamber where the heretic Pharaoh Khouniatonou was buried with an equipment partly consisting of objects that had belonged to his mother, Tiyi, there are four alabaster Canopic jars of a rare perfection even for that period of perfect execution. In the first, which is by far most frequent, her face was remodelled and symbolized in the studios of Thebes in accordance with the customary formula for queens. The colossal group of Medinet Habou, recently transported to Cairo Museum, offers the best example. It is in fact, the effigy of young king sculptured at Thebes at the time when he was only Amenophis IV. It is the profile of the bas-reliefs of El-Amarna with the rounded spine and the particular curve that projects the head forward. They belong to the Theban School, and more particularly to that portion of the Theban School which decorated the temple of Gournah, the Memnonium of Abydos, and the hypogeum of Setoui I.
