Amarna Art
The reign of Akhenaten saw a major change
to the religion, to the sole worship of the sun-disc the Aten, and
with it came a major artistic overhaul.
The most conspicuous changes in the artistic style was the representation
of the king himself. He is shown with a large stomach and thighs and
pendulous breasts. He has a very elongated face, with large lips and
slanted cat-like eyes. In the carved relief the heads of him and his
family and to a certain extent the officials, who emulated the artistic
style, with elongated heads which could have been an indication of
artificial head deformation. The collection of unfinished heads from
the workshop of Thutmose at Amarna show this elongation of the backs
of the princesses heads very clearly. These heads would probably have
been made in order to be attached to full-length statues. The join
between the neck and the torso would have been covered with an inlaid
collar or necklace. Jewellery would have been very important to the
women of this period, and the body that is currently thought to be
Nefertiti has her ears pierced twice, and was the first woman to do
so. Amarna art statues also show pierced lobes and these have been
found on statues of Akhenaten and Tutankhamun although the ear-rings
themselves were rarely shown on the statues. In the New Kingdom in
general it was common for both men and women to have their ears pierced
and in the tomb of Tutankhamun numerous earrings have been discovered
for pierced ears.
The artistic representation of Akhenaten himself has caused much debate
and he is thought to have had a number of diseases.
" Frolichs Syndrome or Dystrophia Adiposogenitalis, a condition
that leads to obesity.
" Marfans Syndrome a hereditary disease where the sufferer grows
very tall and thin.
" Klinefelters Syndrome where the male sufferer has breasts,
small testes and very long legs with a high pitched voice with limited
facial hair growth.
One statue from Karnak shows Akhenaten naked with no genitalia and
it has been suggested he may have contracted a disease after he had
fathered his 6 daughters or even that Nefertiti cuckolded him with
a that the sexless imagery was used to indicate the androgynous characteristics
of Akhenaten in order to connect him with the creation elements of
his god, the Aten. Creator gods are able to re-create by themselves
with no need of a woman. It has also been suggested that the grotesque
image of Akhenaten would also have repulsed the Egyptians, and Akhenaten
may have wanted to shock by going completely against the traditional
artistic style.
As living gods the kings were generally never portrayed in activities
of daily life, kissing children or wives or eating which was one of
the most noticeable changes in this artistic style. The introduction
of the intimate family scenes replaced images of the gods and is very
characteristic of the period. The love that the royal family show
each other was supposed to come from Aten and therefore emanate all
over the world. One image in the Louvre shows Nefertiti sitting on
Akhenaten's lap and another scene shows Akhenaten leading Nefertiti
to bed, and in some tombs the family eating and drinking, which wouldn't
have been considered suitable for the pharaoh. Amarna art has sometimes
been described as "naturalistic" although there is no reason
to believe that the art was any more realistic in this period than
any other. As well as the great intimacy, and change in body image
the Amarna art had great movement, with lively group scenes and fluttering
bands of cloth falling from the crown clothes and furniture indicative
of spending much time outdoors under the rays of the god.
During the Amarna period a lot of damage was caused to statues and
inscriptions in order to eliminate anything that related to the old
gods although this damage was centred mostly on the cult of Amun.
After 17 years on the throne the reign of Akhenaten ended, the new
capital was abandoned and the religion changed back to the polytheistic
religion that was in place before. The name, statues, and monuments
of Akhenaten were destroyed by the following kings to erase his reign,
although ironically this destruction preserved more monuments than
it destroyed. For more information on Amarna
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