Message #113

[Bianca]

NO FEAR OF EMOTION                                                                               continued


Akhenaten did not shy from questioning even the basic principles of Egyptian
art.  His artists tried their hand at bold turns and frontal views, and on the re-
constructed temple wall in the Luxor Museum, it can be seen how even the
convention of scale was no longer binding; in the two lower registers the king,
making offerings in the temple, is depicted as smaller in size than the men walk-
ing to the temple behind him, carrying offerings and cult implements!

 

This entails the annulment of a strict rule that had determined pictorial composi-
tion since the beginnings of Egyptian art: the size of the individuals represented,
whether deities, humans,or animals, did not depend on the accident of their
appearance, but on their relative importance within the scene.

Akhenaten's artists otherwise adhered to this principle, especially representing the
Royal Family.