Among the mysteries of Ancient Egypt, the Amarna period particularly captures the imagination. Whether it is deciphering Akhenaten’s strangely shaped statues (physical deformity, religious symbolism, or artistic innovation?) and who the heck was Smenkhkare, or figuring out who killed King Tut’s mother and was she Nefertiti or Kiya, the questions around Nefertiti’s missing eye seem rather small. Yet among Egyptologists, whether professional or lay, even seemingly minor things can become full-blown controversies. Egyptologist, Dr. Kara Cooney, laughingly said in one of her youtube online conversations that at any gathering of Egyptologists, the mention of anything about Nefertiti is a good way to start a bar fight. While Of Art and Wine does not suggest that you throw a glass of glorious Pinot Noir at anyone, let’s dare to dive into the ancient queen’s business.
First of all, there is no word for queen in Ancient Egyptian. What we call a queen, they referred to as the Great Royal Wife, and Nefertiti is thought to have been even more than a wife. Some think she was a co-ruler with her husband, Akhenaten. He ruled Egypt from 1353 to 1336 BCE and took Egypt toward the worship of one god, Aten, a solar deity. This deed was so hated that he has been forever labeled a heretic, and much of his legacy was obliterated in ancient times. It is often been suggested that the odd look of some of the statuary comes from an attempt to mix the male and female elements of the sun god, Aten, into the form of the Pharaoh, who was his chief representative on earth. Others, especially African-Americans, look at that face and find recognizable features seen within that population. As has been said, the controversies are many. (For more on the sculptural style of that period, see the article “Akhenaten: Strange-looking King or Sassy Sculptor?” at yisela.medium.com)
Akhenaten changed more that just the style of worship. He changed how the country was structured. Rather than have the usual north/south split, with the royal family and court in Thebes (ancient Waset) in the south and the administration in the northern city of Memphis (Inebu-hedj or The White Walls), he had both the court and the administration at his new capital, Akhetaten, thus centralizing the government. This becomes an important fact when looking at the location of the home and workshop of Thutmose, the Royal Sculptor, whose workshop produced many of the existing statues of that period, including the one of Nefertiti with the missing eye.
Thutmose was no piker. The compound where he lived and worked was very near to the North Palace where the royals lived. It contained the artist’s rather spacious home, a large workshop where he worked with his assistants, a “pantry” where various models were kept – a sort of reference library of sculpture, and a stable which included his very own chariot (a gift from Pharaoh?). His close association and location near to the royal court was the source of royal commissions and the source of his wealth. Though Thutmose’ tomb in Sakkara shows him as a painter with a palette given him by Pharaoh Amenhotep III, it is clear from the work that he did for Akhentaten that his abilities as a sculptor were much in demand. And of course, those sculptures were often painted as the beautifully done bust of Nefertiti is.
The bust of Nefertiti that is now in the Neues Museum in Berlin was found by German archeologist, Ludwig Borchardt, in 1912 and left Egypt under not quite legal circumstances. A lax French official (the French not the Egyptians controlled the archeological concession at the time) did not inspect each box, allowing the statue to leave the country unnoticed. This has set up the current dispute between Egypt and Germany about who should have possession of that statue. It was with the discovery of the statue that the theories about the missing eye began.
THEORY #1: THE EYE POPPED OUT WHEN THE STATUE FELL OFF A SHELF.
Borchardt had found the statue in Thutmose’ pantry along with a number of other items, some unfinished and some deliberately smashed (Akhenaten’s images in particular). It was lying face down in the sand, and when picked up, the missing eye was immediately noticed. This brings up one of the theories about what might have happened. This theory says that the statue was on a shelf and in the disorder that followed the death of Akhenaten, a time when Thutmose moved his studio to Memphis, it fell off the shelf and the eye popped out. This idea had occurred to Borchardt, who thoroughly searched and shifted through the sands in an attempt to find the missing eye. However, none was found then, nor has one been found since. This may suggests that one had not yet been made for that sculpture, though that is problematic as the bust dates from either 1345 or 1340 BCE, which is a few years before the end of Akhenaten’s reign. There must be another reason why the eye is missing, especially since there are also no chisel marks indicating the eye was gouged out by those who defaced the other statues of the former royals once the regime had ended.
THEORY #2: NEFERTITI HAD AN OPTHALMIC INFECTION THAT OBLITERATED HER LEFT EYE.
Eye diseases were certainly not uncommon in Ancient Egypt. There are also lots of superstitions concerning the eye, from the fear of the evil eye to the power of the Eye of Horus, which was a protective symbol. (The god Horus lost his eye in battle, by the way.) The problem with this theory is that there are plenty of representations of Nefertiti with both eyes. As well, there are images of her with no eyes at all, just eyelids, but again this would be a matter of the stages of completion of the statue itself. Of importance here is royal decorum in which there were appropriate ways to show the royal family. Egyptologist, Joyce Tyldesley, gives the example of the images of Pharaoh Siptah of the 19th Dynasty, who was known to have had a twisted, crippled foot. All images of him, however, are shown with normal feet and legs, as was deemed appropriate when representing the pharaoh (Nefertiti’s Face, p. 62).
THEORY #3: THUTMOSE, THE REJECTED LOVER, TOOK HIS REVENGE OUT ON THE STATUE.
Here it seems that the heat of the desert must have taken its toll on the imagination. For like a mirage, the thought that this artisan whose very livelihood (and life) depended upon keeping the Pharaoh’s favor would hit on the queen, just evaporates the closer one looks at it.
THEORY #4: THE BUST WAS JUST ONE OF THE MANY STATUES THAT THUTMOSE’S ASSISTANTS PRACTICED ON.
Reality seems to have returned with the supposition that since this bust along with many others in various stages of completion was found in the pantry, which served as a type of repository of models, it was also a model that was used to teach the assistants how to install the eyes. The trouble with this, in my opinion, is that there is no trace of the beeswax glue that was used to cement eyes into statues. The eye itself would have been of rock crystal with the pupil painted in black, and of course, no such missing eye has ever been found. Though there are a couple of tiny areas where the black eyeliner is missing on the lower left eyelid, there is no indication of eyes being set and removed and then reset as would happen when workers practice doing something.
THEORIES #5 AND #6: MINE.
Joyce Tyldesley, at one point in her book admits that sometimes even the best Egyptologists give way to “unabashed speculation,” which is how she announces some of her theories about what happened in those days. So given that license to “speculate,” I think that this bust of Nefertiti was indeed a model, but one worked on by Thutmose himself as a way to perfect his ability to capture the image of the queen. It seems to me to have been so close to completion and too finely modeled and painted to have been something that he would allow his assistants to practice on. The xrays that show the sculpture underneath the lovely painted plaster finish, show a face that has more wrinkles, as well as a slighly bulbous tip to the nose. The painted bust had alterations done to the face underneath the plaster covering, so that we get a perfected realism. It still shows the indication of lines at the corners of the mouth and a bit under the eyes, but is done in a sort of ancient “airbrushing” technique to enhance the queen’s beauty. Once the artist had achieved his goals for how to represent the queen with reality but appropriate beauty, and with one eye already perfectly set, he had no need to set another eye. He just put the statue on a shelf and left it for future reference. (For more on what lies beneath the painted plaster, see this article from Scientific American, “The Hidden Face of Nefertiti.” scientificamerican.com)
Lastly, we have this statue of Nefertiti which is called the Striding Statue, as it is full length. It is dated from 1350 which is early in Akhenaten’s reign. How that date was determined, I do not know, but the statue itself seems to represent an older Nefertiti (see the black and white photo presented earlier which shows her face). She would have had some of her six children by 1350, but all six if this statue was from a later date. The full length version shows a woman with a sagging belly and a stoop in her shoulders that suggests advancing age. I mention this because dating of these works seems to vary a lot.
The Nefertiti bust is sometimes dated at 1345 BCE or perhaps 1340 BCE, but could it be as late as 1337? What if this standing statue is from a later part of the 17 year reign of Akhenaten as well, and thus showing the aging queen, perhaps not in the best of health. There is some evidence that Nefertiti, whose name changes a number of times, shows up again in Year 16 of Akhenaten’s reign, as the Great Royal Wife. There are white ushabtis, quickly done figures carved to provide extra servants to be placed in the tomb for someone who has already died, that have Nefertiti’s name on them and are marked Year 16. If the bust of Nefertiti was done around 1337 rather than 1340 BCE, could it be that it did not get finished because the queen died?
Well, regardless of these “unabashed speculations,” we do know that after the last few Amarnite rulers came and went, the whole project was shut down. The royals under Tutankhamun moved back to Thebes, and the administration went to Memphis. Thutmose moved to Memphis also, as it was the site where the commissions were given out for various pharaonic projects. He built his tomb nearby in Sakkara, a site favored by many former Amarna officials. The bust was left behind in his old digs in Akhetaten, along with many other figures, as there was no more need or desire for them.
What we are left with are speculations on mysteries inside of conundrums inside of enigmas. We look at the face of the queen and wonder about her, and what part she had to play in that religious revolution that failed. Who was she? We will never know, though Camille Paglia left us with a chilling thought when she wrote, “The proper response to the Nefertiti bust is fear.” The actual truth is but a whisper in the sand.
Sources for this post come largely from two of Joyce Tyldesley’s books on Nefertiti: Nefertiti, Egypt’s Sun Queen, 1999 and Nefertiti’s Face: The Creation of an Icon, 2018.
Scientific American article (linked above) “The Hidden Face of Nefertiti,” and the article, “Akhenaten: Strange-looking King or Sassy Sculptor” (also linked above.)
Artwork shown in this article is in public domain.
Marjorie Vernelle is an artist, writer, college professor, and traveler. For more see the Pages at ofartandwine.comor her author page at amazon.com and her art at Vernelle Art Boutique vernellestudio.com.
Wine Among the Ancients.
We know that wines have been around for a long time. They were created for a variety of reasons and used in a variety of ways. A little tour of the ancient world produces some interesting details.
ANCIENT EGYPT
The Ancient Egyptians may have started the business of crafting interesting wine labels. Emily Kate in the article, “How Ancient Egypt’s Wine Labels Rival Today’s” (grapecollective.com) details how their system of labeling worked. Egyptians, like those of many ancient cultures, mostly drank beer, and workers were even paid in beer. The upper echelons of society had their wine. Both drinks were solutions to the problem of drinking water that made people sick. Most of the grapes for local production were cultivated in the rich terrain found in the Nile Delta; however, much of the wine was imported from the near east.
As for the labels, they are sometimes ways to date the reigns of the pharaohs. For instance one of the signs that there was a pharaoh named Smenkhkare are the wine labels on jugs that come from the House of Smenkhkare, which announces the beginning of his reign, followed by the Funerary Wine of Smenkhkare, which is dated later during that same year. For more on their ancient drinks, I leave the link to a great video called The Pharaoh’s Liquid Gold about the creation of beer youtube.com
MESOPOTAMIA
We know that many of the cities and civilizations in this area of the Middle East go back for many thousands of years. Like the Ancient Egyptians, most of the common people drank beer. There is even a recipe given for beer in an ancient work called “The Hymn to Ninkasi.” Code de Vino’s official magazine website, gives Mesopotamia the credit for creating the world’s first wine culture. It is from there that the Egyptians imported much of their wine. King Tut had a number of wine jugs, many imported, in his tomb, showing that he intended to enjoy it in the afterlife as he had in his earthly life. Seemingly the grapes for these wines were grown in the area near the Straights of Hormuz in modern day Iran.
ANCIENT PERSIA (now Iran).
A site in the Zagros mountains in Iran revealed wine jugs going back 7,000 years. The Shiraz grape which is grown throughout the world seems to be connected to the city of Shiraz and a famous wine produced in Iran since ancient times, called Shirazi. The first record of it is from 2,500 BCE. The poet Hafez immortalized this wine in his poetry in the 14th century, and in the 1680s, a French merchant, Jean Chardin, drank Shiraz wine in the court of Shah Abbas and wrote of its marvelous taste. The BBC Channel has a short documentary on The Secret Behind Iran’s Fabled Wine (Shiraz) youtube.com
THE ANCIENT GREEKS
Can’t mention the Persians without mentioning the Greeks, who are quite an inventive bunch. Along with developing Democracy, they did some interesting tricks with their wine. One of those was mixing sea water with wine. Yes, sea water! It seems that in just the right amounts, the salt in the sea water enhances the taste of the wine. This technique for improving the taste was passed on to the Romans, who often continued the practice. Wine has a 4,000 year old history in Greece, where it was used for both religious ceremonies and for “medicinal” purposes. The Greeks believed in the Delphic proscription of “nothing in excess” and applied it to their consumption of wine. It was considered barbaric in Ancient Greece to drink wine that was not mixed with water. The recipe was 1 part wine to 3 parts water.
THE ROMANS
Finally on our little tour, we come to the Romans, whose vast territory was ideal for the spread of viticulture. From the fertile valleys of Italy into France and Spain and even England, wherever the Romans settled, wine was sure to emerge. People in many of these areas had discovered how to make wine before their Roman overlords showed up; however, the trade routes of the Roman Empire enhanced the production greatly. In fact, we still drink the same varieties of wine that the Romans did in their day. Interesting detail: the wine that was popular with the Ancient Romans was a white wine called Falernum. It was allowed to age for 10-20 years, which turned it from white to a beautiful amber color.
While we talk of the certainties of human existence, like Death and Taxes, we can now say that Wines will always be with us as well.
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©marjorie vernelle 2021
COMING SOON: Annibale Carracci, the Anti-Mannerist, and Sangiovese Wines.
Annibale Carracci and his brother Agostino were two of the most famous painters in the 16th century. They worked in the style which we call Mannerism but which was known in at the time as La Bella Maniera (The Beautiful Manner) for emphasizing the finesse with which work was done. Even in this simple genre painting of a man having a meal, Annibale Carracci uses a technique of broken brush work to give the piece a polish that was much valued at the time. Notice also that even eating beans, this fellow has his glass of wine, and the area around Bologna produces wines made from Lambrusco. Trebbiano and Sangiovese grapes.