<em>Lady Tjepu</em>, ca. 1390–1353 B.C.E. Limestone, gesso, pigment, 14 13/16 x 9 7/16 in. (37.6 x 24 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 65.197 (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 65.197_SL1.jpg)

Lady Tjepu, ca. 1390–1353 B.C.E. Limestone, gesso, pigment, 14 13/16 x 9 7/16 in. (37.6 x 24 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 65.197 (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 65.197_SL1.jpg)

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Why do Egyptian women wear wigs? Did they always wear them? Is this because they think human hair is not clean? Do they still wear wigs in Egypt? Thanks!

Hair dressing was a very formal and ritualized process for both men and women in Egypt. Wigs were worn instead of natural hair by many people who may have also had different wigs for different occasions. The shaving of the head had a lot to do with preventing lice and flea infestations. I'm sure some modern Egyptians wear wigs too, but they're probably not like the ancient ones.

Can you tell me about her clothing?

This painting of a woman named Tjepu includes a great example of the kind of fine linen that is common in depictions of ancient Egyptian clothing.

Women are often shown wearing tight-fitting, ankle length dresses made of white linen. Here, she also wears a translucent overgarment also of white linen. The lines you see in it represent pleats.

In this painting of Tjepu, you also see a type of necklace called a wesekh or a broad collar, which was based on collars made of real flowers and therefore had important connotations of rebirth and regeneration.

Can you tell me about his clothing?

This wooden statue of a man named Sa-iset the Younger is another great example of elaborate pleating and here we have the opportunity to see it in three dimensions. This garment also would have been made of linen.

Lady Tjepu

Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art

On View: Egyptian Orientation Gallery, 3rd Floor

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 man 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.

MEDIUM Limestone, gesso, pigment

Place Excavated: Thebes, Egypt

DATES ca. 1390–1353 B.C.E.

DYNASTY Dynasty 18

PERIOD New Kingdom

DIMENSIONS 14 13/16 x 9 7/16 in. (37.6 x 24 cm) (show scale)

COLLECTIONS Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art

ACCESSION NUMBER 65.197

CREDIT LINE Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund

CATALOGUE DESCRIPTION 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. Outline irregular.

EXHIBITIONS

MUSEUM LOCATION This item is on view in Egyptian Orientation Gallery, 3rd Floor

CAPTION Lady Tjepu, ca. 1390–1353 B.C.E. Limestone, gesso, pigment, 14 13/16 x 9 7/16 in. (37.6 x 24 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 65.197 (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 65.197_SL1.jpg)

IMAGE overall, 65.197_SL1.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph

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