Friday, August 19, 2011

Ancient Egypt (pt. 11)

…Ah, is Nefertiti's bust really Realism.  I have reason to think it is.  Going with the trend of the Amarna Period, it would be, and plus a bust carries the connotation of Realism to begin with (it's the face of the person we're looking at—you know, "the eyes are windows to the soul"; a bust is perhaps the closest we can come artistically to "viewing" someone's soul…I guess until we get to Expressionism, but we're a long way's away from that!)  The sculptor certainly does show her as a beautiful queen, and so it could be a Romanticized image of her.  It could be, but we don't know, because this is the only image we have of Nefertiti.  Her tomb was raided after her death, and her mummified face was smashed to keep her from going to the afterlife.

No comments:

Post a Comment