Bak (sculptor)
Bak was "the king's chief sculptor" during the reign of Pharaoh Akhenaten . He was the son of the master builder and sculptor Men and, as he is documented by several inscriptions, probably held an important position at the court. As an architect and builder, he was involved in a number of large building projects in Amarna , where he held the position of “head of the king's work on the red mountain”.
supporting documents
His appearance is known from the so-called Naos stele (Inv. 31009), which is now kept in the Egyptian Museum in Berlin , on which he is shown together with his wife Taheri. The stele is of great artistic and archaeological interest mainly because it is one of the few surviving images from the Amarna period that does not show any member of the royal family. Bak shows himself on her as an earthly creator god who, like some traditional depictions of Akhenaten , has both male and female body shapes. Today it is predominantly assumed that Bak is also the creator of the stele, so that it can currently be regarded as the oldest surviving self-portrait.
On a relief on a rock stele in Aswan , on which he is shown together with his father, he is referred to as "one whom his Majesty himself instructed". This remark certainly relates to the fact that Akhenaten is to be regarded as the spiritual father of the so-called "Amarna art". Whether this relief is also a work by Bak is controversial and cannot currently be proven.
literature
- Werner Kaiser in: Yearbook of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation. Volume II, Gebrüder Mann, Berlin 1963, p. 133 ff.
- Egyptian Museum Berlin. Catalog 1967, No. 766.
- Rolf Krauss : The head sculptor Bak and his memorial stone in Berlin. In: Yearbook of the Berlin museums. Vol. 28, 1986, pp. 5-46.
- Dietrich Wildung : Egyptian Museum and Papyrus Collection Berlin. Prestel, Munich a. a. 2005, ISBN 3-7913-3510-3 , p. 78 ff.
- Martin Andreas Stadler : Bak (I). In: Rainer Vollkommer (Hrsg.): Künstlerlexikon der Antike . Over 3800 artists from three millennia. Nikol, Hamburg 2007, ISBN 978-3-937872-53-7 , p. 112.
personal data | |
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SURNAME | Bak |
BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Egyptian sculptor under Pharaoh Akhenaten |
DATE OF BIRTH | 15th century BC BC or 14th century BC Chr. |
DATE OF DEATH | 14th century BC BC or 13th century BC Chr. |