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This over-life-size portrait of the beloved but short-lived Queen Arsinoe II, wife of Ptolemy (r. 285-246 B.C.), was almost certainly, like most of her statuary, produced posthumously. This accounts for the mask-like quality of her imagery. Although the hairstyle is Ptolemaic, its length is typical for Queen Tiy, the great wife of Amenophis III (1391-1353 B.C.) and the masses would have been easy to reshape in Ptolemaic style. |
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Between the two masses of hair that fall forward over the clavicles are the faint traces of a broad collar of the design and length typically worn by Queen Tiy. Its bottom row is even with the bottom of the hair masses. The Ptolemaic fashion was a much narrower necklace and longer hair. A roughened circular area on the top of the head corresponds to what might have been the round modius (cobra-bordered crown) of Queen Tiy that was excised and reshaped into a rectangular shape, probably an Isis crown, for Arsinoe. Why would Ptolemaic sculptors have reused an earlier statue for the image of their queen? The usurpation of earlier statuary was a Pharaonic tradition. In some cases, for instance where a king simply cut his own cartouche onto the large statue of a previous king, the reason seems to have been quick economy. However, in the case of this statue of Arsinoe, a great deal of trouble was taken to revamp a statue of a previous queen. Perhaps something more was involved. Might we suggest that by causing Arsinoe's image to emerge from that of her cultural and historical ancestor, Queen Tiy, her spirit was bound up to the spirit of queens and goddesses past eventually back to the original divine queen of Egypt, Isis, herself? |
