Amarna Period Art

In the middle of the New Kingdom, around 1350 BC, when the Greeks were building their megaron palaces at Mycenae and Pylos, and the Hittites were just developing the use of iron, and the Jews were wandering around the Israeli hills, the Egyptians had a new Pharaoh who made some dramatic political changes, but also some changes in art styles which were just as interesting. This Pharaoh's name was Akhenaten (Ah-ken-AH-ten). The kind of art that Akhenaten liked is called the Amarna style, because Amarna was the name of the new city that Akenaten made people build for him.

We have a lot of art left from the Amarna period. Amarna art shows people in very dramatic and exaggerated ways. Some people have thought that Akhenaten himself must have looked very ugly, because the statues of him look so weird. But probably it was just a fashion in carving statues.

Akhenaten and Nefertiti

This carving shows Akhenaten and his wife Nefertiti (neh-fur-TEE-tee) and three of their little daughters. They seem to be a very loving family. Their god, the Aten, is represented as a circle in the sky shining down on them.

Nefertiti

Here is another famous statue of Nefertiti:
The reason she looks kindof funny is that one of her glass eyes has been knocked out.

To find out more about the Amarna period, check out these books from Amazon.com or from your library:

Eyewitness: Ancient Egypt, by George Hart. For kids.

The Art and Architecture of Ancient Egypt (Yale University Press Pelican History of Art), by William Stevenson Smith and William Kelly Simpson (revised edition 1999). The standard for college courses.

Egyptian Art, by Cyril Aldred (1985). Another standard.

Akhenaten: Egypt's False Prophet, by Nicholas Reeves (2001).

Akhenaten: King of Egypt, by Cyril Aldred (1991).