Relief sketch with the head of Akhenaten (Berlin 21863)

Relief sketch with the head of Akhenaten
material	limestone
Dimensions	H. 21 cm; W. 21 cm;
origin	Tell el Amarna , house 47.15
time	New Kingdom , Dynasty 18 , 1350/1340 BC Chr.
place	Berlin , Egyptian Museum , Berlin 21863

The relief sketch with the head of Akhenaten from the Egyptian Museum Berlin with the inventory number Berlin 21863 is a relief from the Amarna period .

The relief depicting Akhenaten was found in 1920 during excavations by the German Orient Society in house 47.15 in Tell el Amarna . James Simon acquired the relief and donated it to the Berlin Egyptian Museum. The period around 1350/1340 BC The image dated to the 3rd century BC is 21 × 21 cm and made of limestone .

The apparently unfinished, very flat-modeled study of Akhenaten was found, like other preparatory work and fragments of round and flat sculptures, in Amarna's workshop. Studies of heads were found particularly frequently. The chat headscarf that falls on the neck in a ribbon and the unfinished uraeus snake on the forehead mark Akhenaten as king. With just a few outline drawings, the artist manages to depict well-proportioned, harmonious facial features. The forehead is slightly receding, the upper eyelid of the large eye is lowered, the tip of the nose is rounded, the mouth with the clearly fuller lower lip is slightly open. The chin is large and drooping, the neck is sloping and has the two neck folds typical of Amarna art. Only the ear is very three-dimensional and has a hole in the earlobe. This form of representation is characteristic of a later, somewhat more moderate form of representation of the king and royal family in the Amarna period.

Such studies only became necessary from around the Amarna period, as a uniform canon of figures was previously common in Egyptian art . It was enough to apply a preliminary drawing according to a common pattern, which served as a direct template for a painting or a relief. This canon, which has been in use for a long time, was replaced by more lifelike forms of representation in the Amarna period. In order to be able to form portraits that were as realistic as possible, studies and preliminary work were now necessary to a greater extent.

literature

• Caris-Beatrice Arnst: Relief sketch with the head of Akhenaten in the Egyptian Museum Berlin , von Zabern, Mainz 1991, ISBN 3-8053-1184-2 , p. 106.

Coordinates: 52 ° 31 '10 "  N , 13 ° 23' 54"  E