During Egypt's 18th Dynasty, the Pharaoh Akhenaten took the throne. He brought a monotheistic religion into being, based on the worship of the Aten, a sun god. Artistic changes followed political upheaval, although some stylistic changes are apparent before his reign. A new style of art was introduced that was more naturalistic than the stylized frieze favored in Egyptian art for the previous 1700 years. After Akhenaten's death, however, Egyptian artists reverted to their old styles, although there are many traces of this period's style in late art.
The Ancient Egyptian art style known as Amarna Art was a style of art that was adopted in the Amarna Period (i.e. during and just after the reign of Akhenaten in the late 18th Dynasty), and it is noticeably different from more conventional Egyptian art styles.
It is characterized by a sense of movement and activity in images, with figures having raised heads, many figures overlapping and many scenes are crowded and very busy. The illustration of hands and feet were obviously thought to be important, shown with long and slender fingers, and great pains were gone to be show fingers and finger nails. Flesh was shown as being dark brown, for both males and females (contrasted with the more normal dark brown for males and light brown for females) - this could merely be convention, or depict the life blood. As is normal in Egyptian art, commoners are shown with 2 left feet (or 2 right feet).
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The depiction of the Royal Family is often seen as being informal, intimate and with a family closeness, but this hides the conventions of the style. Central to most scenes is the disc of the Aten, shining down on the Royal Family and literally giving life and prosperity to Akhenaten and Nefertiti. Royalty are shown with left and right feet, each with a big toe. Their heads are elongated.
The statues of Akhenaten which are extant show a long, narrow face with pronounced lips, curved upwards as if smiling. His figure shows a somewhat bloated stomach and rather womanly hips. Scholars have wondered throughout the years why a god-king would allow himself to be depicted thus, since his form suggests weakness and/or illness. .jpg)
However, it appears that Akhenaten was confident enough in himself and his powers as king and his marital happiness to allow himself to be depicted exactly as he was, warts and all. This shows a definite change in the rather stultified art forms of the past to a more relaxed and natural art form.
The decoration of tombs of non-Royals is quite different from previous eras, with fewer agricultural scenes, and the central image is the Pharaoh, rather than that of the actual tomb owner. Obviously, the lack of depiction of gods other than the Aten makes the style of decoration quite different from the standard tomb decoration. Sculptures during the Amarna period show a relaxed quality, a day-to-day quality, lacking in art of the earlier periods.
Comments
Hello Kim,
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Very interesting, but why did Akenaten depart from the art of the past?
hello iam a 12 year old student from sydney australia and i am doing a projiect on egypt. i would like to thank you for this websites help
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hi kim i want 2 use the statue of Akenaten as primary source where is it found? adann
about the last statue. reason for his bloated stomach is cause as a child he suffered from a illness which made him look ugly. this illness lasted for a couple of years and every1 thought he was going to die but he survived. thats why he called himself "He who have lived long"
Just as a note, Akhenaten as a figure made major changes to the world around him and such changes in gender depiction weren't as radical as one would think. Hatshepsut was sculpted as a man more often than not to lend legitimacy to her reign and Akhenaten's depiction as female could have been a way of making the transition from polytheistic, with one of the major cults of the second intermediary period being that of Isis, to monotheistic. This would lend legitimacy to the new religion and be a way of easing people into more standardized worship.
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