Egyptian Art the Art of Essay

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If anything, the style of Akhenaton would tend to emphasize positive features, and perhaps even idealize the figure. The change in style may be attributed to Akhenaton's introduction of monotheism into Egypt. Ahten, the one God into which all other Egyptian deities were formed, was usually portrayed as a sun figure. In keeping with Ahten's supremacy and the tendency of Egyptian monarchs to affiliate them with the prevailing deity, Akhenaton called himself the "One Unique of Re," signifying his individualism.

Because of this, Egyptian artists of the time began the movement to the previously mentioned idealistic portrayal of the human in art.

The representation of Akhenaton and his family members, therefore, was focused primarily on the favorable features and to deemphasize any flaws. The artist Bek is known to have developed sculpture of Akhenaton in such a favorable manner that the monarch used his physical appearance to represents the Egyptian god Re. Bek's work is more naturalistic than previously seen, especially the work most famously attributed to him, the bust of Nefertiti. Bek's work is noteworthy and representative of the period in that his sculptures have long faces, high foreheads, large lips, prominent chins, wide and elongated eyes, a three dimensional representation. As the period progressed, the art becomes even more exaggerated in form with figures demonstrated as having long skinny torsos and arms, but with the fuller hips, stomachs and thighs which demonstrated power and fertility.

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Subject matter also changed. Rather than the rigid poses seen as in the statue of King Khafre, and although formal poses of the king continued to be important, we also see portrayals of the royal family in day-to-day activities such as playing with their children. Animals and birds begin to be shown in a non-representational manner and the emphasis changed from art as a representation of power in death to art as a representation of the minute details of life. This is underscored via that frequent appearance of the sun in paintings and relief. The sun not only demonstrates light and life, but as previously noted, is graphic representation of Ahten.

The latest figures of the period began to move away from the stylized representation of the royal family, but began to become even more naturalistic and incorporated even greater imagery. The limestone relief which shows Akhenaton sacrificing a duck (ca. 1353-1336 BCE) shows the familiar sun sign although a lesser degree of elongation in the figure. This relief is also unusual in that it is an attempt by the artist to demonstrate a single moment in time rather than leader as symbol or deity. This again represents the move of the later "New Kingdom" period to a more natural and humanistic style, but retains some elements of pose and limb representation similar to traditional and earlier Egyptian Style......

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