Gouche and Gold Leaf
20” x 17” including frame.
“She Lives for the Aten” is a tribute to the obscured legacy of Queen Ankhesenpaaten, the third daughter of Nefertiti and the devoted wife of Tutankhamun. Despite her prominence in the Amarna and post-Amarna periods, historical records of her life fade into silence after the death of the young Pharaoh. This piece seeks to reclaim her narrative from the shadows of antiquity, reanimating her presence through the very iconography that defined her era.
Drawing heavily from discovered artefacts, the image weaves authentic motifs into a contemporary visual celebration of her life. The goddess Isis, the mother of rebirth, extends her protective wings, simultaneously cradling Tutankhamun’s iconic death mask and Ankhesenpaaten herself, bridging the gap between the living and the eternal. The divine cobra, Uraeus, acts as a symbol of royal authority and a guardian against the erasure of her story. Aten (the sun-disk god for whom she was named) radiates ‘golden light’ across the many depicted scenes, ensuring that while her end remains a mystery, her memory remains luminous.
Gouche and Gold Leaf
20” x 17” including frame.
“She Lives for the Aten” is a tribute to the obscured legacy of Queen Ankhesenpaaten, the third daughter of Nefertiti and the devoted wife of Tutankhamun. Despite her prominence in the Amarna and post-Amarna periods, historical records of her life fade into silence after the death of the young Pharaoh. This piece seeks to reclaim her narrative from the shadows of antiquity, reanimating her presence through the very iconography that defined her era.
Drawing heavily from discovered artefacts, the image weaves authentic motifs into a contemporary visual celebration of her life. The goddess Isis, the mother of rebirth, extends her protective wings, simultaneously cradling Tutankhamun’s iconic death mask and Ankhesenpaaten herself, bridging the gap between the living and the eternal. The divine cobra, Uraeus, acts as a symbol of royal authority and a guardian against the erasure of her story. Aten (the sun-disk god for whom she was named) radiates ‘golden light’ across the many depicted scenes, ensuring that while her end remains a mystery, her memory remains luminous.
