The Art of Akhenaten's
Time
An article penned by Sementawy
Horemheb
Aten Disk
For over two thousand years,
Egyptian art remained beautiful, static and unchanging. Haughty, beautifully
reserved and youthful sculptures formed an ideal that was both ageless
and timeless. Then came the radical Akhenaten who assailed the Egyptians
cherished long held beliefs, presenting the
establishment with an art form that is immediately recognisable and causes
much controversy and emotional debate to this day.
The focal point of Amarnan
art was the royal family. Akhenaten claimed to 'live in maat' (truth,
justice, order) and chose for himself and other members of the royal family
to be depicted in a decidedly unconventional and distinctive manner. Full
lips, elongated eyes, long necks, pendulous breasts, swollen hips, buttocks
and thighs, spindly limbs... a far cry from the agile, solid and forcible
bodies of the traditional depiction of kings.
In Akhenaten's new religion,
the royal family, whose divinity was stressed are shown interacting with
the Aten. The disk of the Aten is depicted holding out ankhs only to the
nostrils and mouths of the immediate royal family and it appears only
they were to benefit from the life giving powers of the sun.
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These early works show a confusion
of intentions and feature works by both 'Men' (a sculptor under Amenhotep
III) and his son Bek, also know as Bak, who served primarily under Akhenaten.
Bek describes himself as "the apprentice whom His Majesty instructed"
and in the words of the famed Egyptologist Cyril Aldred 'this is usually
taken to mean he was responsible for the deplorable colossi of Akhenaten
at Karnak, which no sculptor, brought up in the idealistic concept of
pharaonic portraiture would have dared to produce without the direct sanction
of his king.'
Another of the principle sculptors
during the reign of Akhenaten was Djehutymose, or Thutmose whose titles
describe him as the 'kings favourite and master of works.' It was under
this man that sculptors were encouraged to explore realism and to soften
the intense and grotesque lines of prior works inspired by the instruction
of the pharaoh that the artists should aim for truthfulness. The single
most evocative object produced in Amarna is the limestone bust of Akhenaten's
queen Nefertiti which was discovered by German archaeologist Ludwig Borchardt
in Djehutymose's south Amarnan residence in December of 1912. This bust
is remarkable and shows a level of increased awareness in the artist and
substantial concern for beauty. In other works by lesser sculptors, there
is a clear division between 'applied' and 'fine' art.
It was during the years of
1891/2 that Flinders Petrie, while excavating at Amarna, discovered a
number of glass glazing and faience workshops with a plenitude of artefacts
and it is here we find the art of Amarna reaching it's zenith with brilliant
displays of artistic expression. The abundance of finely crafted and dynamic
objects found attest to the high level of workmanship in this particular
art form, as opposed to the early attempts at stone working. It is not
surprising that the ancient Egyptians referred to these faience and glass
objects as 'tjetnet,' 'that which shines and dazzles.' Items found at
Amarna included architectural tiles, inlays of jewellery, vessels and
other decorative elements.
Interior design in Amarna could
be described as minimalist, despite the generous use of painted surfaces
and decorative tiles. Wood was of course scare and hardwoods such as the
ash from central Asia and ebony from central Africa were expensive and
the preserve of the royal family and nobles. Local softwoods such as the
acacia nilotica, the tamarisk and sycamore proved to be hard to work with
and of little use. Woodworkers enhanced their work by using inlays of
ivory, precious metals, veneers of cheaper cuts of woods such as dom and
date palms, gold leaf, glass and faience. Painted and gessoed surfaces
on furniture items such as the ever common stool were common treatments.
Fine stones, such as calcite and red breccia and the blue glaze of steatite
were used by craftsmen for making small vessels such as cosmetic spoons,
jars, beads and amulets. The most common material used in construction
was mud brick. Stone was primarily used for column bases and surrounds,
lintels and thresholds where some strength was required in building.
Relief work in the heretics
city were either highly raised or too deeply cut, showing the artisans
were under some pressure to produce works or art featuring the Atenist
royal family and do it quickly. Construction must have proceeded at a
furious pace and the break from the established artistic style and iconography
proved too dramatic and today only glimpses remain of Akhenaten's city
at Amarna.
We are fortunate to have some
remaining Amarna 'treasures' and, the work of the great Djehutymose aside,
compared to the more stylised and sophisticated and more richly classical
art of over two millennia of Egyptian art we find Amarna art naive, severe,
hurried and barren. The emotional element of the heretics theology as
it pertains to Amarna 'art' is difficult to explain away as simple religious
zeal. The city was conceived as a show place for the cult of the Aten
but proved to be too a violent a break from the traditions in art that
had served Egypt for several thousands of years.
References:
Akhenaten
Cooney, John D. "Egyptian
Art in the Collection of Albert Gallatin." JNES, 1953.
Cooney, John D. "Catalogue
of Egyptian Antiquities in the British Museum: V1 Glass and Faience.,
London 1976.
Blackman, Aylward M. "The
Nugent and Haggard Collections." JEA, 1917. Collection manifest.
Aldred, Cyril. "Akhenaten.
King of Egypt." Thames and Hudson. ISBN 0-500-27621-8,1988 London.
Catalogue: Agyptisches Museum
Berlin, 1967. Berlin, Germany.
Allen, James P. "The Natural
Philospohy of Akhenaten." ('In Religion and Philosophy of Ancient
Egypt') Yale Egyptological Studies - William Kelly Simpson. New Haven
USA, 1989.
Petrie, W.M.F. "Tell
el Amarna." London, 1894.
Images:
Chronicle of a Pharaoh:
The Intimate Life of Amenhotep III by Joann Fletcher.
Scanned by Kendal Caledonii
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amarna_art
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aten
