The Iconic Beauty of Queen Nefertiti: Exploring Her Portrayal in Art and Sculpture

Nefertiti is that Egyptian queen who was famous for her beauty, and it is known that she possessed elegant beauty, and she had a statue that is considered a symbol for many women and for many modern cosmetics lines, and many societies around the world have adopted Queen Nefertiti as a symbol of true beauty, and some historians they declared her to be the most beautiful woman in the world.

The heroine of today’s story is the sweetest and most beautiful woman in Egypt in the 14th century BC. Everyone agreed on her beauty despite the disappearance of her body. As for her strength, all ancient history books spoke about her. “The beautiful woman came – Jamila Jamilat Aten.” These are the meanings of her name that have been immortalized in history forever. Today I am talking about Queen Nefertiti.

About Queen Nefertiti

Queen Nefertiti, whose name means “the beautiful one has come,” is the wife of King Amenhotep IV (who later became Akhenaten), the famous pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty, and the mother of Tutankhamun.

She was considered one of the most powerful women in ancient Egypt. She lived a short period after her husband’s death, and helped Tutankhamun take over the kingship. This beautiful queen had a high status during her husband’s rule.

She belonged to the Eighteenth Dynasty, and lived in the fourteenth century BC, and like what happened with her husband, her name was erased from historical records and her pictures were distorted after her death.

Nefertiti is famous for the bust of her depicted face carved on a piece of limestone in one of the most wonderful pieces of art from the ancient era, and it is the most famous drawing of Queen Nefertiti.

The story of Queen Nefertiti’s life with her husband

Queen Nefertiti participated with her husband in the worship of the new god, Aten, the power of the sun disk.

She and her husband were the mediator between the people and Aten, and she was supposed to grant full blessing only when the royal couple united.

During the first years of her husband’s rule, Nefertiti changed her name according to the change in her faith to Neferneferaton Nefertiti, which means “Aten shines because the beautiful one has come.”

Nefertiti is remembered for the bust of her depicted face carved on a piece of limestone in one of the finest pieces of art from the ancient era.

It is the most famous image of Queen Nefertiti. It was found by the German Egyptologist Ludwig Borchardt on December 6, 1912 in the workshop of the sculptor Thutmose in Tell el-Amarna.

Almost nothing is known about Nefertiti’s life before her marriage to Akhenaten. Scenes from the tombs of the nobles at Amarna indicate that Nefertiti had a sister named Mutpenert.

Ti also held the title of “nurse of the great royal wife [Nefertiti].” In addition, Ti’s husband (Ai) held the title of “Father of God.”

Some Egyptologists believe that this title was given to a man whose daughter married the Pharaoh. Based on these titles, it has been suggested that Ai was actually Nefertiti’s father.

However, neither Ai and Ti are explicitly referred to as Nefertiti’s parents in extant sources.

At the same time, there are no sources that directly contradict Ai Nefertiti’s parentage, as he had great influence during Nefertiti’s life and after her death.

About the statue of Nefertiti

The story begins when a statue of Nefertiti was found on December 6, 1912 AD, at Tell el-Amarna, led by the German archaeologist Ludwig Borchardt, in the workshop of the sculptor Thutmose.

Along with many other busts of Nefertiti, Borchardt described the discovery in his memoirs, saying: “Suddenly, we have in our hands the best surviving Egyptian works of art. It cannot be described in words. You must see it.”

In 1924 AD, a document was found in the archives of the German Oriental Company about a meeting that took place on January 20, 1913 AD, between Ludwig Borchardt

And the director of the Inspection of the Antiquities of Middle Egypt, Gustav Lefebvre, to discuss the division of the archaeological discoveries that were found in 1912 AD, between Germany and Egypt.

Borchardt was determined to make the bust belong to the Germans, and it is suspected that Borchardt had concealed the bust’s true value, although he denied this.

Borchardt showed Lefebvre a poorly lit photo of the statue of Nefertiti, and hid the statue in a box when Gustave Lefebvre visited.

The document revealed that Borchardt claimed that the statue was made of gypsum, while it was made of good quality limestone.

After Lefebvre signed the division, it was approved by the director of the Antiquities Department at the time, Gaston Maspero, and it was shipped directly to Berlin, and the statue arrived in Germany in the same year 1913 AD.

Thus the famous bust ended up traveling to Berlin, not without a certain deception, where Borchardt, realizing the importance of the piece, hastened to wrap it up.

And show “only a bad image to the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities” at the time, which was naive to give its approval to the distribution proposed by the skilled archaeologist.

A bust of the queen was displayed for the first time in 1924, in the New Museum, causing great expectations and where it remains, despite urgent calls from Egypt to return home, it is difficult for him, visited every year by a million people, many of whom head to the North Dome Room.

In the Berlin Museum just to see it. Two years ago, the insurance company valued the business at more than 300 million euros.

There is another statue of Nefertiti’s head in the Egyptian Museum, made of red quartz and decorated with touches of ink. It is no less meticulous in its workmanship than the head in Berlin, but it is less famous.

About the character of Queen Nefertiti and her love for her husband

Nefertiti was given many titles: she is the hereditary princess, the great of praise, the lady of grace, the sweetest of love, the lady of the two lands, the king’s great wife, his lover, the lady of all women, and the lady of the south and the north.

Nefertiti supported her husband in his new religious calling, which amounted to a religious and social revolution, and she supported him in moving the capital to its new headquarters.

Which was called “Akhet Aten,” meaning the horizon of Aten, and its location is now the village of Tel Amarna in Minya Governorate.

There, alongside her husband, she played an essential role in spreading the teachings of the new religion that he called for, and she appeared with him on all religious and official occasions and celebrations.

This is what can be known from the scenes that depicted them together and their daughters with them on the walls of the temples of Aten and the tombs of the nobles at Tell el-Amarna.

Queen Nefertiti and her personal strength

She appeared in some scenes attacking enemies like the king, which confirms the broad and unparalleled power she enjoyed in ruling the country alongside Akhenaten.

Nefertiti was a distinguished queen among the queens of the Eighteenth Dynasty. She had a unique personality in Egyptian history, as appeared to us from the large number of works of art that she left to us.

As for Nefertiti’s partnership in power alongside her husband, King Akhenaten, it can be said that Nefertiti played an important role in both religious life and political life.

Her power and status increased under Akhenaten, as scenes and inscriptions showed her in ritual scenes next to him as a partner in rule.

Although Nefertiti was not mentioned in the Amarna Letters, which explained the political and diplomatic relations between Egypt and its neighbors at that time,

However, we can also imagine that it played some role in foreign policy, as is evident from the painting preserved in the Boston Museum

Which shows Nefertiti standing, raising her fist to strike an enemy in the form of a woman, and this scene of suppressing enemies is a masculine scene throughout the dynasties of the Pharaonic era of the ruling king who subjugates the enemies of Egypt.

In addition to the scene of striking enemies, Nefertiti appeared with the royal crowns of a ruling king and not just the crown of a king’s wife, and in addition to the crown known as the blue khabarish crown that the king wears in ritual scenes.

Nefertiti appeared wearing the same blue crown, which is only represented with a ruling queen, as was the case with Hatshepsut.

The death of Queen Nefertiti and her tomb

One of their daughters, Meket-Aten, died, and their grief for her is depicted in some wall paintings. After the death of their daughter, Nefertiti disappeared from the royal court and was replaced by her daughter, Meritaten

She obtained the title of Great Royal Wife. After the twelfth year of Akhenaten’s rule, Nefertiti disappeared and there was no mention of her. It is believed that she died and was buried in the cemetery of Akhet Aten.

It is also believed that Tutankhamun moved her mummy with his father Akhenaten when Aten’s sister abandoned him.

Egyptologists were unable to determine the location of Nefertiti’s tomb during years of research after the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb.

In 2015, Dr. Nicholas Reeves from the University of Arizona announced that he may have found the tomb of Queen Nefertiti and that she may have been secretly buried inside the tomb of Tutankhamun.