Statue of Nefertiti

Queen Nefertiti appears to have been portrayed naked. But in fact, the wide sleeves, and hem drawn as a thin black line over the breasts, indicate that she is wearing a close-fitting dress with a wide shoulder collar. The queen also wears sandals and a round cap with forehead serpent, whose rearing head was added in a different material and is now missing. Her figure does not conform to an ideal of youthful beauty. The upper thighs and hips are rather plump, and the small breasts have lost their firmness. The neck is a little too thin and inclines forward, making the figure appear almost slightly stooped. The corners of the mouth turn down, giving a joyless expression to the gaunt face.

This limestone figure, found in the same sculptor's studio as the famous Berlin Nefertiti bust, has no recourse to idealization in its portrayal of the queen, and so probably comes close to representing Nefertiti as she really was. Its realism corresponds to the basic premise of the monotheistic religion of Nefertiti's husband Akhenaten, namely that life fulfils itself in the space between birth and death, and that a commitment to this life, to Creation in all its forms, is the true response to God's invigorating gift of light and life. The statue is unfinished; the black lines around the eyes and the edge of the cap mark out where further work was to be carried out on the figure in the sculptor's studio.