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| Notice the hands at the end of each ray extending from ] in the relief. The ] symbolized "life" in the Egyptian culture, and in this depiction it is handed down from Aten by rays of the sun. The importance of the Sun God Aten is central to much of the Amarna period art, largely because Akhenaten's rule was marked by its monotheistic following of Aten. | Notice the hands at the end of each ray extending from ] in the relief. The ] symbolized "life" in the Egyptian culture, and in this depiction it is handed down from Aten by rays of the sun. The importance of the Sun God Aten is central to much of the Amarna period art, largely because Akhenaten's rule was marked by its monotheistic following of Aten. | ||
| ] | |||
| In this sculpture of Akhenaten, note his wide hips and drooping stomach. Much like the bust of Nefertiti above, Akhenaten's neck if elongated. His lips are thick and his arms and legs are thing and lack muscular tone, unlike his counterparts of other eras in Egyptian artwork. | |||
| Excellent examples of sculptures from the Amarna period can be found at the M.A. Mansoor Amarna Collection (http://www.mansooramarnacollection.com/) website. | Excellent examples of sculptures from the Amarna period can be found at the M.A. Mansoor Amarna Collection (http://www.mansooramarnacollection.com/) website. | ||
Revision as of 16:48, 12 April 2007
See also: Art of Ancient EgyptThe 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 Eighteenth Dynasty, and 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 busy and crowded. Also, the human body is portrayed differently in Amarna style artwork than Egyptian art on the whole. For instance, many depictions of Akhenaten's body give him destinctly feminine qualities, such as large hips. This is a divergence from the earlier Egyptian which shows men, especially men, with perfectly chiseled bodies. The face is still shown in profile, though.
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).
Tombs
The decoration of tombs of non-Royals is quite different from previous eras, with not many agricultural scenes, and the image of the king being central, rather than that of the actual owner of the tomb.
Obviously, the lack of depiction of gods other than the Aten makes the style of decoration quite different from the standard tomb decoration.
Sculpture
Sculptures from the Amarna period are set apart from other periods of Egyptian art. One reason is the accentuation of certain features. For instance, an elongation of the neck.
In this bust of Nefertiti, her neck is almost unnaturally long and thin, especially in proportion to her large head. Her large, heavy eyelids have an unreal quality about them. Notice the bright colors: the bright blue used in her headdress and the red, blue, gold, and green shades used in her jewelry.
Notice the hands at the end of each ray extending from Aten in the relief. The ankh symbolized "life" in the Egyptian culture, and in this depiction it is handed down from Aten by rays of the sun. The importance of the Sun God Aten is central to much of the Amarna period art, largely because Akhenaten's rule was marked by its monotheistic following of Aten.
In this sculpture of Akhenaten, note his wide hips and drooping stomach. Much like the bust of Nefertiti above, Akhenaten's neck if elongated. His lips are thick and his arms and legs are thing and lack muscular tone, unlike his counterparts of other eras in Egyptian artwork.
Excellent examples of sculptures from the Amarna period can be found at the M.A. Mansoor Amarna Collection (http://www.mansooramarnacollection.com/) website.
Architecture
Not many buildings from this period have survived the ravages of later kings, partially as they were constructed out of standard size blocks, known as Talatat, which were very easy to remove and reuse.