- Date:
- c. 1353 BCE - c. 1336
Amarna style
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What is the Amarna style in ancient Egyptian art?
The Amarna style was a revolutionary art style created by Amenhotep IV, who later changed his name to Akhenaten. This style is associated with his reign (1353â36 BCE) during the Eighteenth Dynasty.
Akhenaten's changes to Egyptian artistic and religious life were radical, though short-lived. His innovations centered on the worship of Aten, the sun's disk, which he elevated above all other gods in the Egyptian pantheon. The artistic elements Akhenaten introduced in the decoration of the Aten temples and other monuments are known as the Amarna style.
Key features of the Amarna style include:
- A new artistic idiom for representing the human body in both wall relief and sculpture.
- Faces depicted with a hanging jaw, pronounced facial folds, and narrow, slitted eyes.
- The body consisting of a thin, attenuated neck, sloped shoulders, a heavy paunch, large hips and thighs, and rather spindly legs.
- The portrayal of the royal family in less formal, intimate contexts.
- More realistic detail in the depiction of the human body.
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Who introduced the Amarna style, and when did it appear?
The Amarna style, a revolutionary form of Egyptian art, was introduced by Amenhotep IV, who later changed his name to Akhenaten. This artistic style emerged during his reign from 1353â36 BCE in the 18th dynasty.
Akhenaten seems to have been the guiding force behind the stylistic changes, as much as the Aton religion itself; indeed, the two are irrevocably intertwined. The innovations were central to a new religion that he created based on the worship of Aton, represented as a sun disk. The Amarna style is characterized by a new artistic idiom for both wall relief and sculpture that depicted the human body with a hanging jaw, pronounced facial folds, narrow, slitted eyes, and elongated skulls.
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How is the Amarna style different from earlier Egyptian art styles?
The Amarna style represents a deviation from traditional Egyptian art during the reign of Akhenaten (1353â36 BCE). In contrast to the conventional portrayal of pharaohs alongside deities, Akhenaten's new religion, centered on the worship of Aton, depicted the sun disk bestowing rays of light upon Akhenaten, often accompanied by his queen, Nefertiti, and their daughters.
A new artistic style emerged, characterized by faces with hanging jaws, pronounced facial folds, and narrow eyes. Bodies were depicted with thin necks, sloped shoulders, heavy paunches, and spindly legs. The royal family was portrayed in intimate settings, a departure from traditional formality. These stylistic changes may have been influenced by Akhenaten himself.
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What are some common features or subjects shown in Amarna art?
Amarna art arose during the reign of Akhenaten (1353â36 bce) who brought drastic change to Egyptian artistic and religious life.
Common features or subjects include:
* Aton as the sun disk Unlike other Egyptian deities, Aton was represented as a sun disk in the sky with rays ending in tiny hands. Akhenaten, often with his queen Nefertiti and daughters, were shown at ground level, basking in the sunlight.
* Royal family in intimate settings The royal family was portrayed in less formal, affectionate scenes, even on private offering stelae, showing Akhenaten and Nefertiti with their daughters.
* Realism The human body was depicted with more realistic detail, such as individually distinguished toes, earplug holes in earlobes, and visible neck wrinkles.
* Common citizens and landscapes The compositions included common citizens and soldiers in informal poses, along with scenes of the Egyptian riverfront and desert.2 Britannica SourcesCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles. -
Why did artists use more naturalistic and relaxed poses in Amarna art?
The Amarna style, which emerged during the reign of Akhenaten (1353â36 bce), marked a shift in Egyptian art. Akhenaten's changes to Egyptâs artistic and religious life revolved around the worship of Aten, the sun disk Amarna style.
In Amarna art, the human body was represented in a more realistic manner, with details such as toes, earplug holes, and neck wrinkles Amarna style. The royal family was often portrayed in informal and intimate settings, which was a departure from traditional Egyptian art. These changes included the portrayal of the royal family in less formal, intimate contexts, even on private offering stelae, where Akhenaton and Nefertiti dandle their daughters on their laps, exchanging kisses and embracing them affectionately in a manner otherwise unknown in Egyptian art Amarna style.
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What happened to the Amarna style after Pharaoh Akhenaten's reign ended?
After Akhenaten's death, the city he founded, Akhetaten, was abandoned by the third regnal year of his son and successor, Tutankhamun. Despite the abandonment of the Aton cult and the systematic destruction of its temples, some stylistic features of the Amarna style were retained by later artisans of the Ramesside period. The most important of these was an confidence in designing large-scale compositions on temple walls, especially the battle scenes of Seti I and Ramses II, and the festival reliefs at the temples of Karnak and Luxor.
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Amarna style, revolutionary style of Egyptian art created by Amenhotep IV, who took the name Akhenaton during his reign (1353â36 bce) in the 18th dynasty. Akhenatonâs alteration of the artistic and religious life of ancient Egypt was drastic, if short-lived. His innovations were centred upon a new religion based on the worship of Aton, or the sunâs disk, which Akhenaton elevated above all others in the Egyptian pantheon. The artistic elements that Akhenaton introduced in the decoration of the Aton temples and on other monuments of his reign, both at Karnak and at his new capital of Akhetaton (Tell el-Amarna), are referred to collectively as the Amarna style.
Unlike other Egyptian deities, usually portrayed face-to-face with the pharaoh in their anthropomorphic or animal form, the Aton was shown in its natural state as a sun disk in the heavens with pendant rays; each ray ended in a tiny hand. In such portrayals Akhenaton was placed at ground level, bathed in the sunlight descending from the disk and often accompanied by his queen, Nefertiti, and one or more of their daughters.
A new artistic idiom, for both wall relief and sculpture, was devised to represent the human body. Faces were depicted with a hanging jaw, pronounced facial folds, and narrow, slitted eyes, while the body itself consisted of a thin, attenuated neck, sloped shoulders, a heavy paunch, large hips and thighs, and rather spindly legs. The princesses are usually shown with greatly elongated skulls. Several theories, none thoroughly convincing, have been propounded to explain these features as the naturalistic depiction of Akhenatonâs own physical deformation caused perhaps by disease.
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Other innovations include the portrayal of the royal family in less formal, intimate contexts, even on private offering stelae, where Akhenaton and Nefertiti dandle their daughters on their laps, exchanging kisses and embracing them affectionately in a manner otherwise unknown in Egyptian art. The human body was depicted in more realistic detail, with the toes on the right and left feet carefully distinguished for the first time, earplug holes shown in the earlobes, and neck wrinkles visible. The vast wall expanses of the new Aton temples invited experimentation in large-scale composition, devoted not only to the ubiquitous offering scenes but to religious ceremonies such as the kingâs Karnak jubilee and detailed architectural depictions of the royal palace and the Aton temples. The peripheral regions of these compositions were peopled by the common citizens and soldiers of Akhenatonâs court, often captured in informal poses, as well as scenes of the Egyptian riverfront and desert landscape, enlivened by animals and birds of the Nile River valley and its uplands.
Akhenaton seems to have been the guiding hand behind these stylistic changes, as much as the Aton religion itself; indeed, the two are irrevocably intertwined. A dedicatory text of the master sculptor Bek described him as âone whom his majesty himself instructed.â The Amarna period also produced a number of sculptures of exquisite refinement, including the painted portrait bust of Nefertiti found in the workshop of the sculptor Thutmose, perhaps the most famous embodiment of female beauty from the ancient Middle East.
The term Amarna style obscures the fact that within these broad outlines, there exists a great variety of individual approaches, ranging from sublime beauty to what appears to be a severe caricature of the human form. The exaggerated tendencies in both sculpture and relief are more evident at the Karnak temples, built during the early years of Akhenatonâs reign and obviously decorated in haste by a large number of craftsmen. Scholars have noted that during the later years at Akhetaton, these features are for the most part mitigated in a more naturalistic, less extreme portrayal of the human body. Some have even postulated that this âmatureâ style reflects a concomitant softening of the more radical elements of the Aton religion on the part of Akhenaton. Whatever the truth, the Amarna style represents a series of related artistic endeavours and experiments over the course of the reign. Despite the later abandonment of the Aton cult and the systematic destruction of its temples at Karnak and Akhetaton, a number of stylistic features were retained by later artisans of the Ramesside period. The most important was perhaps a confidence in effectively designing large-scale compositions on temple walls, in particular the battle scenes of Seti I and Ramses II, and the festival reliefs at the temples of Karnak and Luxor.