Statue of Akhenaten

Illustration

by Elsie McLaughlin
published on 26 July 2017

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Statue of Akhenaten — This fragmentary statue of the pharaoh Akhenaten (Amenhotep IV) dates from the Amarna Period (c. 1353-1336 BCE), and was originally housed in a temple complex to the Aten near Karnak, in what is now modern-day Luxor. Currently on display in the Louvre Museum in Paris, it is a prime example of the exaggerated "Amarna Art" style. In almost all official court artwork, Akhenaten is depicted in a highly stylistic manner, with an elongated face, distorted facial features, spindly limbs and a feminine body shape. It is unlikely that the king actually looked this strange; rather, his appearance was likely exaggerated for symbolic/religious reasons.

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About the Author

Elsie McLaughlin

Elsie McLaughlin is an aspiring Egyptologist, whose areas of interest include the Amarna Period, gender, female kingship, and the history of the early New Kingdom, as well as the relationship between royal women & warfare in the New Kingdom.

License

Uploaded by Elsie McLaughlin, published on 26 July 2017 under the following license: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike. This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon this content non-commercially, as long as they credit the author and license their new creations under the identical terms. Please note that content linked from this page may have different licensing terms.

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Cite This Work

APA Style

McLaughlin, E. (2017, July 26). Statue of Akhenaten. World History Encyclopedia. Retrieved from https://www.ancient.eu/image/6913/

Chicago Style

McLaughlin, Elsie. "Statue of Akhenaten." World History Encyclopedia. Last modified July 26, 2017. https://www.ancient.eu/image/6913/.

MLA Style

McLaughlin, Elsie. "Statue of Akhenaten." World History Encyclopedia. World History Encyclopedia, 26 Jul 2017. Web. 03 Mar 2021.

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