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Brooklyn Museum — Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art · statue

Unfinished Portrait of Nefertiti

Source of record: Brooklyn Museum — Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art — catalogued by the holding institution. View the original record →

Description

Object Label: Artistic style drastically changed during the Amarna Period. Because artists had to quickly adapt to the new style, they left behind an unprecedented number of trial pieces and sculptor’s models. Such unfinished works reveal the artistic process of ancient sculptors. The initial sketch in black ink outlines Nefertiti’s tall crown, and indicates her facial features and long neck with neck folds. The artist began sculpting the relief by carving away stone around Nefertiti’s profile and marking out the eyes, lips, and ear. Caption: Unfinished Portrait of Nefertiti, ca. 1352–1336 B.C.E. Limestone, pigment, 5 7/16 × 5 1/4 in. (13.8 × 13.3 cm) mount (deck mount m2): 6 × 6 1/2 × 5 1/2 in. (15.2 × 16.5 × 14 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of the Egypt Exploration Society, 33.686. (Photo: Brooklyn Museum)

AI image analysis GPT-4o-2024-08-06

Machine-generated from the object's image on May 2026. Not curatorial; treat deities, names, and signs below as the model's best reading, not authority.

Limestone relief fragment depicting a human profile.

This artifact is a fragment of a limestone relief featuring the profile of a human head. The carving displays the contours of the face with subtle line work, suggesting a style typical of Egyptian relief artistry. The piece is notably worn, with visible erosion and some chisel marks, indicating it may have been an unfinished work or part of a larger composition.

unclear unknown fragmentary
Materials limestone

Connections

Found at Tell el-Amarna
Royals Nefertiti
Materials Limestone

Cross-references (2)

  • BKM-Accession 33.686 tier-2
  • BKM-Object 37208 tier-2
About this record's data
  • From the source institution — accession, description, dimensions, and dating are as catalogued by Brooklyn Museum — Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art.
  • AI-inferred — the image-analysis panel (deities, names, signs) is machine-generated and may be wrong.
  • Approximate location — most map points are plotted at the site centroid, not the exact findspot.
  • Inferred links — cross-references marked with a match method other than explicit-source-field were matched by us, not stated by the source.