Nefertiti's Face: The Creation Of An Icon

Product Description

More than three thousand years ago a sculptor working in the royal city of Amarna carved a limestone bust of an Egyptian queen The queen was Nefertiti consort of the 'heretic pharaoh' Akhenaten Plastered & painted Nefertiti's bust depicted an extraordinarily beautiful woman However Akhenaten's reign was drawing to an end & the royal family was soon to be written out of Egypt's official history Not long after its creation the stone Nefertiti was locked in a storeroom & forgotten In 1912 the bust was re-discovered & transported to Germany Initially hidden from the public view the beautiful queen was eventually displayed in Berlin Museum Instantly she became an ancient world celebrity Egypt has yielded more than its fair share of artistic masterpieces but no other sculpture has so successfully bridged the gap between the ancient & modern worlds The timeless beauty of the Nefertiti bust both attracts us & sparks our imagination but in so doing it obscures our view of the past shifting attention not only from the other members of the Amarna court but also from other equally valid representations of Nefertiti herself In this book Joyce Tyldesley explores the creation of a cultural icon from its ancient origins to its modern context its discovery its display & its dual role as a political pawn & artistic inspiration