Bust of Nefertiti

The queen Nefertiti, wife of the pharaoh Akhenaten, lengthens her neck under a tall flat-topped crown, her face balanced with almost mathematical poise. Found in 1912 in the ruined workshop of the sculptor Thutmose at Amarna, the painted limestone bust was probably a master model for other portraits, which may be why only one eye is inlaid and the other left blank. It was made during Akhenaten's brief religious revolution, when Egypt was made to worship the sun-disk alone, and it remains the most famous face from the ancient world.