Thursday, May 8, 2008

Tutankhamun

It was never intended as such, but I consider this the finest of all Egyptian royal portraits.

4 comments:

irene said...

Even over the famous Nefertiti bust?

Jeffrey Smith said...

I never liked that one. Very cold customer, and I can't dislike her and her useless husband for the mess they made. I have too much respect for the concept of monarchy to have much patience with bad kings.

irene said...

(1) Is the quality of the art to be judged by the sanctity of the subject. Consider Holbein's portrait of Henry VIII.

(2) The characteristics of the two busts are sufficiently alike that their sculptor might be the same -- or at least teacher and student.

(3) The relationship between Akhenaton's monotheism and Mose's monotheism is sufficiently murky to caution against condemning the former.

Jeffrey Smith said...

Sorry, but I don't see it that way. The man was a fanatic who was prepared to violently impose his ideas on a country that didn't want them. Worse still, he ignored the stability and prosperity of his country to play with his high-faluting notions. No amount of monotheism can make up for incompetence.
Actually, I don't even think the Berlin bust is all that good.

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