Nefertiti and Marilyn Monroe: comparing past and present portraiture

Portrait Bust of Queen Nefertiti, Thutmose, 1345 BCE
Turquoise Marilyn, Andy Warhol, 1962 CE

While their styles (ancient portraiture vs Pop) and medium (stone vs silkscreen), not to mention culture and time period of production (Ancient Egyptian vs Modern American), are vastly different, there are many notable similarities between the portraits of the Egyptian Queen and the American Celebrity. The two pieces of artwork require the viewer to focus on a central image of the female’s face. A simple yet clearly defined color palette makes up each image, with darker more natural browns, red, green, and blue in the Nefertiti sculpture and reds, blue, yellow, and green in the Marilyn portrait.

Each utilizes a medium that is a product of its time. Nefertiti is a limestone sculpture, making it a unique image that only a single artist at a specific time could have created. This makes it slightly more difficult to reproduce than Warhol’s Marilyn, which was created using a silkscreen, a modern technique made possible through significant technological advancements of the early 20th century, that allows the art to be reproduced numerous times by anyone.

Both display only the portrait of the female’s head from the neck up, though one is frontal and three-dimensionally in the round while the other is two-dimensional and set at a three-quarter angle. Though begun in likeness of their subject each is highly stylized. Nefertiti’s over emphasized feminine features - larger, smiling lips, large eyelids, and shapely eyebrows along with make up and decorative coloration - makes her an ancient representation of the feminine ideal. Likewise, Marilyn is illustrated with simplified, smooth young skin that creates the illusion of youth as a lasting feature.

Both works of art are portraits of prominent women of their time. Each would have been known by almost everyone in their respective regions. The images set a standardization of appearance for depicting the queen and Marilyn that were used in many different representations and they set the bar for remembering them throughout history. Through this unique, representative rendering, each was established as an icon of her time. These artworks were set to immortalize the image of the figure as it is, and to this day when we are asked about either woman, these two images are among the first portrayals that come to mind.