Amarna art

Amarna art, or the Amarna style, is a style which was adopted in the Amarna Period, that is to say during and just after the reign of Akhenaten (r. 1351–1334 BC) in the late Eighteenth Dynasty in the New Kingdom. Whereas Ancient Egyptian art was, in general, famously slow to alter its style, the Amarna style was a significant and sudden break, and is noticeably different from the style of the period before, which was returned to afterwards. 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. The human body is portrayed differently; figures, always shown in profile on reliefs, are slender, swaying, with exaggerated extremities. In particular depictions of Akhenaten's body give him distinctly feminine qualities such as large hips, prominent breasts, and a larger stomach and thighs. Other pieces, such as the most famous of all Amarna works, the Nefertiti Bust in Berlin, show much less pronounced features of the style.

Amenhotep IV was one of the first to practice monotheism, the belief in just one god. Shortly after claiming the throne, he declared the god Aten, represented by the sun, was the only true god. To pay homage to his chosen god, Amenhotep IV changed his name to Akenaten. Throughout his rule, Akenaten tried to change many aspects of Egyptian culture to celebrate or praise his god, especially the style and usage of art.

The illustration of figures' hands and feet are apparently important. Fingers and toes are depicted as long and slender and are carefully detailed to show nails. Artists also showed subjects with elongated facial structures accompanied by folds within the skin as well as lowered eyelids. The figure was also illustrated with a more elongated body than the previous representation. In the new human form, the subject had more fat in the stomach, thigh, and breast region, while the torso, arm, and legs were thin and long like the rest of the body. The skin color of both male and female is generally dark brown (contrasted with the usual dark brown or red for males and light brown or white for females). This could merely be convention, or it may depict the ‘life’ blood. Figures in this style are shown with both a left and a right foot, contrasting the traditional style of being shown with either two left or two right feet.

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