The Art of Akhenaten – Paper
The Art of Akhenaten A Formal Analysis of House Shrine and Akhenaten Making Offerings The Art of Akhenaten A Formal Analysis of House Shrine and Akhenaten Making Offerings One of the most enigmatic pharaohs of Egyptian history, Amenhotep IV, had grown up in the most powerful family in ancient Egypt. Once he became pharaoh and ruler of Egypt’s empire in 1378 BCE, he changed his name to Akhenaten, “effective spirit of Aten”, and was known to the people as “the heretic king.
Early in his reign, Akhenaten encouraged ideas by using art as a way of emphasizing his political and religious intentions of doing things differently; therefore, changing Egyptian society. This was true for the following reasons. Politically, when Akhenaten denounced the state deities, he altered the artistic style and technique of ancient Egypt, by the intimate settings and placements of him and his royal family. Religiously, the forced monotheistic religion was artistically stylized by having the new deity, Aten, as the main theme in his reliefs.
These emphases were what came to be known as Amarna art, an erratic, sensual, new style of art that celebrated the vibrancy and movement of the real world during Akhenaten’s reign. Akhenaten’s famous two relief sculptures, House Shrine and Akhenaten Making Offerings, reflect the revolutionary changes in art and religion and therefore of politics during the reign of this monotheistic pharaoh. Akhenaten and his family were the only royal family that was intimately described by the king as displaying love and devotion under the protection of Aten.
In House Shrine (figure 1), the limestone stele, depicts King Akhenaten and his “Holy Family” starring his wife Queen Nefertiti and his two daughters. It was intended to be stored in a private room in the Amarna palace. The stele is decorated with an intimate scene showing the daily life of the Holy Family. The sculptor’s color choice of bright, yellow limestone background shown in this art piece complements the sun that shines down on all the individuals. The use of fine lines emphasizes the sun shining down on Akhenaten and his family.
This sense of illumination by both the sun and indirectly by the family expresses that they are full of love and happiness. Often times bright colors are associated with love and happiness, such as this yellow limestone stele. The sunken relief technique is also used. As Janson explained in his text it was a popular technique amongst Egyptian art sculptures. In this technique, the sculptor cut sharp outlines into the stone’s face, and modeled the figures within the outlines, below the level of the background, rather than carving away the surface around figures to allow them to emerge from the stone.
Light shining onto the stone’s surface then cast shadows into the out-lines, animating the figures without compromising the solid planar appearance of the wall. In this art piece the sunken relief technique gives further emphasis of the sun above shining over them and creates shadows throughout the art piece by the deep incisions of the curved lines along the back of King Akhenaten’s neck and Queen Nefertiti’s right shoulder tracing down her arm. In addition, there are deep incisions along the outline of his children, which give the shadows symbolism that presents the whole family as the focal point of the piece.
However, the incisions along the children do not run as heavy as the ones on Akhenaten, Nefertiti, and the sun god. By using heavier incisions it gives the idea that these three figures are of greater importance. In conclusion, the choice of color gives the mood of the stele, the lines tell us the focal point and establishes the important figures. Overall, this piece is well put together. In the beginning of Akhenaten’s religious reform, the official state religion was still based on polytheism with Amun rising above other deities throughout classic Egyptian art.
During his third reign, Akhenaten started to build his own public temple, near the temple of Amun at Karnak. This first act as king brought with him a shocking speculation and hostility between his throne and the priesthood of Amun. Inside the temple was an entirely new style of art, which was often described, as “naturalistic” in Akhenaten’s portrayal of the human body. No longer was the Pharaoh portrayed as half animal with the perfect body fitted for the afterlife. Akhenaten and the royal family were shown with long toes, massive hips, extremely long fingers, skinny torso, ample breasts, big buttocks, and an elongated face.
This exaggeration of the royal family’s bodies altered classic Egyptian art and became better known as Amarna Art. Another astonishing act to this religious revolution was the Akhenaten’s order of the construction of a new capital, far to the north of Thebes known as Amarna, horizon of the sun, claiming the sun god lead him there. A few years after, Akhenaten made the decision to abandon Thebes and ordered his people to pack up and leave behind the city built by his father to receive the blessings of Aten in the city of Amarna.
Shortly thereafter, he abolished traditional gods and goddesses, declaring one monotheistic deity, Aten, and introduced in art as a more intimate worship in public and personal settings of the royal family, receiving blessings from Aten, and showing day to day life and activities. A classic example of the radical transformation of Egyptian state religion is found on the Royal Tomb in Amarna, Akhenaten Making Offerings (figure 2), depicting Akhenaten and his wife Queen Nefertiti carrying flowers to be laid on the table beneath the “life-giving” rays of the Aten with his two eldest daughters behind him praying and offering gifts.
In Akhenaten’s hands are four flowers that represent his minor wives Merytaten, Kiya, Mekytaten, and Ankhesenpaaten. What made this piece so alarming to the Egyptians is the misshapen facial structure and body style of Akhenaten and the royal family, and the worshipping of a single god. Starting at the top of Akhenaten Making Offerings there is a subtle linear band going across the fragment, which is a hieroglyph for sky. The open space with the round geometric shape in the sky symbolizes the royal family is open to worship.
King Akhenaten, standing in front of Queen Nefertiti, bathing in the rays of the Aten, could symbolize that he was the solo priest of his monotheistic religion. As giver and sustainer of life, Aten’s rays of light form a radial path that begins from the sun and, if one looks closely, he’ll notice the rays of light end in hands holding ankhs, the hieroglyph for life. This characteristic is often repeated in Akhenaten’s art pieces, including the House Shrine. The outline of the rays forms a triangular pyramid. In ancient times pyramids were built as a guise to protect the deceased pharaohs as they traveled to the afterlife.
Similar to the House Shrine, the sunken relief technique is used to covey the importance of the figures. The heavy incisions around Aten, behind the Pharaoh and his wife, emphasize them as the main focal point of the art piece and the importance of their religious standing with Aten. The dark underline around Aten creates a dark shadow symbolizing his great power as the monotheistic deity. The curved lines behind Akhenaten and his family could symbolize a shadow effect since Aten is placed in front of the family and the lines around the front side of the figures are a lot finer.
The shocking effect this piece had on the Egyptians was King Akhenaten’s way of stating his radical vision of breaking Egyptian tradition. Furthermore, King Akhenaten’s abandonment of the traditional gods and roles of kingship also took a toll on Egypt’s political status seen in his art by worshipping Aten. Tucked inside his newly construed city, obsessed with his monotheistic religion, he spent little to no time on his foreign affairs and more time posing with his family for the sculptor.
The military pleaded for support against enemy attacks, but King Akhenaten was distracted with building more temples of Aten so that he and his family would always be protected. This was depicted in his art by showing Aten placing the sunrays over his family as a symbol of protection. In the backlash that followed during the end of his reign, the people and the kingship referred to him as the “Great Criminal”. And in the events following his death, the misshapen face and body feature of Akhenaten and his family were rubbed and broken off.
Amarna art was desecrated and traditional Egyptian art was reinstated. His capital was destroyed, the people returned to Thebes, and after awhile his image was abandoned, and the heretic king was forgotten. In conclusion, three thousand years ago, in the short time of the Amarna period, Akhenaten turned Egypt upside down by breaking classical Egyptian art tradition and announcing a new deity. During that time, capitals were moved, religious ideas developed and flourished, foreign affairs depleted, and artistic changes took place in art within the walls of the court.
