Posted on 09/15/2006 3:58:12 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
Discovered in 1912 at Tel-El-Amarna in what used to be the workshop of the sculptor Thutmose, the bust - depicting a woman with a long neck, elegantly arched brows, high cheekbones, a slender nose and an enigmatic smile played about red lips, has become the international symbol of beauty.
However, a new examination of the famous bust has revealed visible wrinkles running down her slender neck, and puffy bags circling, leading experts to now believe that Nefertiti was an aging beauty.
Dietrich Wildung, director of Berlin's Egyptian museum, who is part of the investigation, revealed that signs of aging had been discovered when he considered using a different kind of lighting to display the bust at Berlin's Altes Museum.
(Excerpt) Read more at newkerala.com ...
Not like in the closing days of WWII, when the bust miraculously survived the destruction of Berlin by the Red Army -- and equally miraculously escaped the fate of being looted and carried off to Moscow.Nefertiti's Bust Gets a Body, Offending EgyptiansEgyptian officials, who first learned of the project from German newspaper articles this month, have interpretedthe work as a cultural insult. Although the government has not made any motion to block the showing of the work in Venice, it has aired its grievanceshere. One Egyptian newspaper ran the headline, "Queen Nefertiti Naked in the Berlin Museum!" Mr. al-Orabi, the ambassador, explained:
by Hugh Eakin
June 21, 2003
"It contradicts Egyptian manners and traditions. The body is almost naked, and Egyptian civilization never displays a woman naked." Mr. Faruq, the Egyptian culture minister, called the artwork mad and ill considered. He said the Berlin museum's acquiescence to the project indicates that the famous Nefertiti sculpture is "no longer safe in German hands."
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I've become bored with Egyptian archaeology though.
To quote the great Andy Griffith, from "Andy and Cleopatra," '...Now I know how you've all heard how she was a beautiful woman. Well now she wasn't a beautiful woman, she wasn't a beautiful woman at all. She was alriiiight, but she wasn't beautiful.'
I always thought the head wear greatly detracted from her natural beauty.
Only the sculptor (and Nefertiti herself) knew Nefertiti's true looks. Given ancient people's predilection for idealistic portrayals of their powerful...I would say that "aging" or not, she was an attractive and powerful woman.
As for the Euro trashers' attachment of a body to the bust...what an exercise in futility.
:'D
"...You have to remember that Ceaser and Antony were soldiers and overseas..."
Well, I wish I had that many lines and wrinkles. To me she looks 25 and flawless. I don't know what puffy bags those Germans are seeing.
They appear to be the lines left by the tool used to scrape the likeness out of the block of soft stone, nothing more.
That bust always reminded me of a cross between Audrey Hepburn and Sophia Loren (and they aged beautifully!)
Was she a Van Gogh fan?
Also a Blackbeard fan -- the reason for the profile view is that the left eye is chipped away. It's really a miraculous find anyway.
Thanks MPHIS for the link. That shows the left eye, freedomlover, showing that there's just a white spot where the paint flaked off since antiquity but prior to discovery.
http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2006/09/05/nefertiti_arc_zoom0.html?category=history&guid=20060905110030
Good comparison.
Where on earth is that freaky thing situated?
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