The Art of the Amarna Period

The entry for this week is written by Shirley Jones and Carolyn Harries, two Egypt Centre Volunteers and Education Leaders who have previously contributed to this blog.

In this week’s session, we discussed the revolution in art and sculpture during the Amarna Period of Egyptian history. Already during the reign of Amenhotep III, artists had begun to portray human figures and the natural world in a more realistic way. During the reign of Amenhotep IV, later to become Akhenaten, and his consort Nefertiti, this creativity flourished. However, as we know, it was accompanied by a religious revolution where the traditional state gods were abandoned in favour of the “Aten” or sun-disc. These two aspects of Akhenaten’s reign appear to be quite closely related.

Fig. 1: Early depiction of Amenhotep IV in the tomb of Ramose (Davies 1941, pl. 29)

Akhenaten’s reign began fairly inauspiciously, but by his second regnal year some changes became apparent both in art and in religion. Traditional subjects began to disappear from temples and tomb decoration. Early images of Akhenaten appear “normal” in the sense that he is portrayed in style and adornment as were his predecessors (fig. 1). However, from year two of his reign, he is increasingly shown with the long narrow face, hollow eyes, swollen stomach, sensuous hips, and pendulous breasts that we have come to expect from his portraiture and sculpture (fig. 2). This came to be known as the Amarna style and was mirrored to some extent in the paintings and statues of the other members of the royal court. The earliest work was most pronounced in its distortion and exaggeration of features and led the German archaeologist Walter Wolf describing it as a “sick ugliness and nervous decadence” (Hornung 2001, 43). Strong words indeed!

Fig. 2: Colossal head of Akhenaten

So, what led this Pharaoh of the late Eighteenth Dynasty do to cast aside the long-standing traditions and basic principles of Egyptian Art? The answer, if there is one, cannot be separated from the new, somewhat heretical focus on the single deity of the Aten, the sun-disc, and its life-giving rays. As the king, Akhenaten’s decision to worship one particular god had a major impact on everything, art and artists included. This new religious thinking altered traditional funerary customs and consideration of conventional gods. Akhenaten clearly wanted his new religion to be given prominence and over a period of time images of the myriad Egyptian gods were replaced by images of Akhenaten and his family worshipping the Aten. However, it must be acknowledged that the old gods did not disappear completely from art. Bes and Tawaret in particular are still to be found on amulets and other adornment (fig. 3).

Fig. 3: Amulet of Bes (W961p)

In artistic terms, the new style could be described as perceptual as opposed to the earlier style which was more conceptual. Topics were now drawn from a contemporary world rather than an imaginary one, and new ways of portraying reality were introduced. This was very unusual, almost unheard of at the time. The basic principles of Egyptian art had previously been regarded as given by the gods, thus perfect and impervious to change even by the Pharaoh. Now, however, the old gods had been banished and as religion changed so did the art. The natural world was more faithfully represented with some thought to three-dimensional space. The “new” art portrayed ever more realistic images, such as the baking of bread and the preparation of food offerings (fig. 4). Representations of the king and his family are more domestic in nature; the king and queen playing with their daughters, which are much more informal depictions showing their love and intimacy. In one relief, the royal couple are mourning the death of their daughter Meketaten (Martin 1989, fig. 7). While mourning scenes are not uncommon in Egyptian art, what is unusual is for the royal family to be portrayed in this way. The whole scene expresses grief and emotion not generally represented in Egyptian art.

Fig. 4: Talatat blocks

However, this very different way of representing Akhenaten and his family does raise certain questions. Their rather strange appearance for one. Was Akhenaten actually “living in truth”, as has been stated? Did they really look like this, with elongated features and distended stomachs or was this a stylistic invention to distinguish them from previous royalty and help to associate them with the new deity the Aten? It seems the images of both Akhenaten and Nefertiti change over time. Starting out normal, becoming very distorted, and then gradually less so, although Akhenaten remained a fairly androgynous figure. Was he trying to demonstrate the genderless nature of the Aten, neither male nor female but the source of all life (fig. 5)? Was he expressing his own creativity and way of seeing things? Bak, the king’s sculptor, is reported to have said that was the king himself who taught him how employ their craft. Was he being literal? Was he flattering Akhenaten or was he simply stating that he had been instructed to create the images in a certain style? More questions than answers.

Fig. 5: The so-called asexual statue of Akhenaten

It would appear that Akhenaten had considerable control over what was produced and how it was expressed. Therefore, was this simply a different way of controlling the art and statuary of the time? Perhaps this new expressionist style was Akhenaten’s way of making a sacred statement, of expressing his relationship with his god. One thing seems clear during the Amarna Period, artists appeared to have much more freedom to express their creativity. Under Akhenaten they were encouraged to portray fluidity, shape, and emphasise physical imperfections, to show things as they were and to “live in truth”. Obviously, this did not happen overnight and the beginnings of the naturalism we see in this period must have had their genesis much earlier in the Dynasty. Nevertheless, we see this relaxed style becoming more obvious in Akhenaten’s reign possibly due to the absence of traditional subject matter.

Fig. 6: Broad collar (W10)

The artefacts from the museum that we handled this week and have handled throughout the course certainly show the skill and the originality of the artists of the time. We examined one of the four Broad Collars (W10) from the Lady Berens collection, which is believed to have belonged to the Amarna princesses and it is obviously child sized (fig. 6). The collar has an assortment of pendant amulets, notably a heart and a squatting figure that are associated with funerary practices (Bosse-Griffiths 2001). The squatting figure wears a sidelock, and the finger to the mouth suggests childhood and thus rebirth. The design is quite intricate, such a lovely object to accompany a child into the afterlife.

Fig. 7: Fish-shaped dish (W1269)

The most unusual objects we examined were four fragments (W230d, W1268–70) of household dishes in the shape of fish (fig. 7). The fragments, which are made of faience and were beautifully painted, originate from the excavations of the Egypt Exploration Society (EES) and the collection of Richard Bethell. We could see quite clearly the fish scales and a solitary ‘fishy’ eye staring up at us. One fragment even contained the tail fin and two of the pieces had concave undersides. Shallow, open fish-shaped dishes were known as early as the Middle Kingdom. It has also been suggested that fish-shaped bowls served as ointment dishes, with the Egypt Centre having several on display.

Fig. 8: Lute-player bezel (W1150)

For us, the most beautiful piece and one which clearly demonstrated the skill of the craftsmen and artists of the time was the ring bezel (W1150) with a lute player and a monkey, which was excavated by the EES during the 1926–27 season (fig. 8). Apparently, this motif of a musician with lute is rare but not unique at Amarna (Graves-Brown 2014). Music was associated with offerings to the king and the sexualised nature of this female musician (she is quite naked) is suggestive of revivification. Monkeys are associated with music and dance as well as female sexuality. Such a tiny thing, but so charmingly crafted!

Bibliography:

Bosse-Griffiths, K. (2001). Bead collars with Amarna amulets in the Wellcome Collection of the University College, Swansea. In J. G. Griffiths (Ed.), Amarna Studies and other Selected Papers (pp. 27–30). Freiburg (Schweiz); Göttingen: Universitätsverlag; Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.
Davies, N. de G. (1941). The tomb of the vizier Ramose. MET 1. London: Egypt Exploration Society.

Freed, R. E., Markowitz, Y., & D’Auria, S. H. (Eds.). (1999). Pharaohs of the sun: Akhenaten, Nefertiti, Tutankhamen. Boston: Museum of Fine Arts.

Graves-Brown, C. (2014). A gazelle, a lute player and Bes: three ring bezels from Amarna. In A. M. Dodson, J. J. Johnston, & W. Monkhouse (Eds.), A good scribe and an exceedingly wise man: studies in honour of W. J. Tait (pp. 113–126). London: Golden House Publications.

Hornung, E. (2001). Akhenaten and the religion of light (D. Lorton, Trans.). London: Cornell University Press.

Martin, G. T. (1989). The royal tomb at el-Amarna II: the rock tombs of El-Amarna, part VII: the reliefs, inscriptions and architecture. Archaeological Survey of Egypt 39. London: Egypt Exploration Society.

Robins, G. (2000). The art of ancient Egypt. London: The British Museum Press.