During the Eighteenth Dynasty under the rule of the Pharaoh Akhenaten (r. 1353-1335 B.C.), the Egyptian art style underwent a drastic change from its traditional style. This change in art technique during the fourteenth century was called the Amarna Period.
Under Akhenaten's rule, the worship of most of the Egyptian gods was abandoned and replaced by a monotheistic religion based around the belief in the god Aten. Aten was identified with and represented as a sun disk or light and not in animal or human form, which was how the gods had been represented in pervious dynasties. Besides changing religion from the worship of multiple gods to one god, the pharaoh also changed his name from Amenhotep IV (servant of the head-god Ahmun) to Akhenaten (servant of the sun) and moved his capital city downriver from Thebes to Tell el-Amarna.
During the Amarna Period, art moved towards a more relaxed, realistic portrayal and away from the traditional stylized and rigid formality of the previous dynasties. It focused on showing nature, the pharaoh, and his subjects in natural poses and personalized images of family, daily life, and domestic scenes. Many of the paintings and tomb reliefs of Akhenaten, his wife Nefertiti, and their daughters depict intimate affection and tenderness in their manner.
At this time artists were encouraged to show volume, shape, and fluidity in their works and to reveal physical imperfections of the body. Akhenaten is shown with an effeminate, misshapen body, full-lipped face, heavy-lidded eyes, weak arms, narrow waist, protruding belly, wide hips, and fatty thighs. These traits may have been the result of some illness he had or were the portrayal of a new expressionistic style. Besides these imperfections of body, Akhenaten, his family, and his subjects were also shown with exaggerated and elongated heads and bodies, and the lines that make up these images were curved and graceful suggesting a more carefree and poetic attitude toward art.
Information about color use in artwork at this time is scarce, but it seems that the same meanings and uses placed on color followed similar techniques used before the Amarna Period.
Some art historians, as stated in Gardner's Art Through the Ages, believed that Akhenaten's shift away from the traditional style of art towards a more expressionistic and individual style was due to a “deliberate artistic reaction against the established style, paralleling the suppression of traditional religion” and that "Akhenaten's artists tried to formulate a new androgynous image of the pharaoh as the manifestation of Aten, the sexless sun disk.” This may have been the case or Akhenaten was just trying to make sure that he and the changes he brought to Egypt during his reign were not forgotten.
After Akhenaten's death his heir Tutankhaten (living image of Aten) changed his name to Tutankhamun (living image of Amun) and restored the kingdom back to polytheism. Akhenaten's city of Tell el-Amarna was abandoned, and most of the artwork from this period was destroyed. However, aspects of the art style from Akhenaten's reign such as the sense of tenderness and affection can still be seen in some of Tutankhamun's treasures found in his tomb.
Art Gallery of the Amarna Period: http://kate.stange.com/egypt/gallery.htm
References:
Kleiner, Fred S., Mamiya, Christin J., Tansey, Richard G. Gardner's Art Through the Ages. Orlando: Harcourt College, 2001.
“Amarna Art.” http://kate.stange.com/egypt/art.htm 09 Oct. 2002
“Understanding Egyptian Art.” Bergen http://www.bergen.org/AAST/Projects/Egypt/art_report.html 09 Oct. 2002
“The Armana Style of Art.” Kheper http://www.kheper.net/topics/Egypt/Akenaten.htm 21 Oct. 2002
“The Amarna Style.” Metmuseum http://www.metmuseum.org/explore/newegypt/htm/lk_amarn.htm 28 Oct. 2002
“Cult of Aten.” Historylink http://www.historylink101.com/1/egypt_1/religion_cult_aten.htm 28 Oct. 2002
Written by Alison Thiele, 2002
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