“Queens of Egypt” at the National Geographic Museum, Washington, D.C., March 1 to Sept. 2, 2019 focuses on seven women who ruled ancient Egypt.
Queens in Ancient Egypt…now in Washington, D.C.
Professor M. Och
ARTH 114 and ARTH 115: Introduction to Western Art, University of Mary Washington
I find the way the Egyptians present their queens within art extremely interesting because they show them as strong and intelligent leaders. Regardless of them being women, they are presented in a way that shows the Egyptian people respect female leaders as much as male leaders.
One cool fact that I learned about Queen Nerfertari is that none of her sons succeeded Ramses the Great as pharaoh as he outlived them, but yet they served in various high status roles in the royal court. I visualize queens as being the supporter and foundations of family households. Queens in Egypt portray this strong astonishing demeanor which influences a moral standard of what women should be valued as.
In their art work, Egyptians display their queens showing a lot of power. In the other pieces of artwork that we looked at, the women were shown behind the men or sitting. The Egyptian women are show as strong, independent leaders, that are just as powerful as men.
Its awesome to read that ancient Egyptians held their queens to such high regard. They saw them as powerful, strong and intelligent leaders who deserve lots of respect. All leaders, male and female were seen as equally powerful. The Egyptian people had so much respect for their leaders, their art showed them in powerful stances above everyone else.
During this read, I thought it was very interesting that Egyptians thought of goddesses as having great power in the Egyptian pantheon. It is crazy to think that so many years ago men and women were seen as equally powerful and that Egyptian’s thought of women as strong and intelligent leaders.
After diving into more research on Egyptian mythology, this image of the queen becomes more clear. During this era, it is said that the dead must overcome several tests, such as winning senet, to pass through the afterlife. The Senet, to which I assume she is playing, is the oldest known board game to exist historically. Making this image even more impeccable. Players move pawns on a grid of thirty squares, which is what you can see throughout the image. On a sad note, the actual rules are not known, making this image even more of a mystery.
Here’s my take on this image and why it is such a mystery. After doing additional research, in Egpytian mythology, the dead must overcome several tests, such as winning senet, to pass through the afterlife. Senet, the game the queen appears to be playing, is the oldest known board game. Players move pawns on a grid of thirty squares. Want to know how to play? Unfortunately, the actual rules are not known. But feel free to let me know if we found out!
This sounds like a really neat exhibit! I would love to see a 3-D visualization of Queen Nefertiti’s Tomb! Also, being able to see artifacts used by Cleopatra VII would be WILD!! She’s such an iconic historical figure!
I think it’s really cool to have an Egyptology exhibit focus exclusively on women rulers–as important and powerful as they were in Egyptian society, they’re often relegated to the sidelines today.
This sounds like an amazing exhibit and I hope to go see it before it closes. The Egyptians had so much respect for their queens seeing them as strong and powerful rulers. I think that having an exhibit devoted to so many of them will help to show people that these queens are worth learning about, that Nefertiti and Cleopatra VII weren’t the only amazing queens Egypt had.
It was very fascinating to read about Ancient Egyptian Queens and the role they played in their society. Before reading this article, I was not aware that female Egyptian rulers were very well respected and played an important role in everyday life. This was very interesting because in many other civilizations women were not seen as important, but rather men were seen as the people that that were crucial to the civilization’s survival.
I have always enjoyed how in Ancient Egyptian art they present their queens with such respect. It shows that in their society Queens were well respected, intelligent, and powerful, unlike other art pieces that might show women only for their beauty. This exhibit just reinforces the idea of how important women were in Egyptian society compared to other civilizations.
The National Geographic Museum’s emphasis on the roles queens provided in ancient Egypt allows for a broader understanding of the power dynamics of ancient Egypt, as well as illustrates how artwork can allow for people to redefine their understanding of history and historical relationships. The artworks illustration of women as powerful (through gestures portrayed, movement illustrated, the way the women are dressed, etc.) creates a new perspective of women in history and the power women can possess.
The way that royal women are depicted in ancient Egyptian art shows a kind of dignity, power, and poise that is otherwise not found in antiquity, and even modern art today. There is a kind of wisdom and presence that precedes each of the queens.
This painting represents how the Queen Nefertari was honored by the king of Egypt. The artwork displays the beautiful clothing and jewelry that the Queen wore. It is evident that she was very important to the king because he built beautiful monuments for her. Another thing that I found remarkable is how the Queen is shown sitting down playing a game of Senet. I learned that this game means “passing” and the game was seen as a parallel to the journey into the afterlife and the obstacles one had to overcome on their way. This artwork is an example of how tombs in Egypt were decorated so beautifully in honor of dead.
I really like how the Egyptians present the Queens of Egypt because they show how powerful she is. Normally back then, there weren’t many women in power but Egypt had very strong and powerful women as their Queens and they were highly respected. The way she is dressed is a big indicator that she is someone of a higher status and should be respected.