Faces of Egypt
by Gregg Chadwick Egyptian Portraits at the Neues Museum, Berlin photo by Gregg Chadwick Including: Upper Left Mask from Amarna: Portrait of a Man Center : Queen Nefertiti Bottom Right: Pharaoh Ay New Kingdom, Dynasty 18, ca. 1340 BC Gypsum Amarna Height 18 cm Neues Museum, Berlin These life-sized masks are from a series found in the workshop of the sculptor Thutmoses in Achet-Aton (today called Amarna) in Middle Egypt. Amarna was the capital of Egypt during the reign of Pharaoh Akhenaton and Queen Nefertiti. The portrait study of a man in the upper left of the photo provides an interesting view of Thutmoses' artistic process. First a cast was taken directly from the sitter's face and then a gypsum copy was made from the mould. The gypsum sculpture was then brought to detailed completion. In this installation of ancient sculptures, we are directly confronted with the real faces of Egypt. Even if the sitters' names and identities have been lost to history, their muted prese...