Tea at Trianon: The Hunt: Where in the World Did Nefertiti Go?

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Saturday, June 8, 2024

The Hunt: Where in the World Did Nefertiti Go?

From ArtNet:

Celebrity archaeologists perennially announce that they’re close to unearthing the tomb of Nefertiti, perhaps ancient Egypt’s most powerful queen. She first tantalized the modern world with her beauty alone in 1912, when her iconic bust appeared. Her importance in ancient Egypt became better known over the following years. Still, archaeologists remain baffled about her abrupt disappearance from the historical record—and where her remains lie.
Nefertiti was raised at the court of Thebes, and may have been the daughter of Ay, a vizier to Amenhotep III. She married Amenhotep IV, heir to the throne, at age 15. Polytheistic ancient Egyptians each favored one god or another. Nefertiti followed Aten, the sun god. In either the fifth or ninth year of his reign, Amenhotep III changed his name to Akhenaten and devoted Egypt to an unpopular monotheism around Aten. Nefertiti changed her name too, to Neferneferuaten.

Many scholars believe Nefertiti wasn’t a queen, but a co-regent. Carvings portray her smiting Egypt’s enemies. After bearing Akhenaten six daughters, Akenhaten’s sister bore him King Tutankhamun. Fourteen years into his reign, one of Nefertiti’s daughters died in childbirth. Shortly after, Nefertiti vanishes from the record. (Read more.)