This torso from a statue of Akhenaten was found in the Sanctuary of the Great Aten Temple or in the dump south of the Sanctuary area of the temple. The heavy breasts and sagging belly of the king are typical of his representation, a feminized body that may suggest his fertile receptiveness to life and divine inspiration from the Aten.
The statue appears to have been standing with its arms held naturally so that they hung slightly forward, a realistic pose developed by Amarna artists. Like all images of the king and queen, but not the princesses, the torso is inscribed with pairs of Aten cartouches on its chest. In addition the names of the god appear on the preserved upper arm (and would have appeared also on the missing arm and on both wrists), on the king's belt, and at the top of the backpillar.
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Artwork Details
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Title:Torso of Akhenaten
Period:New Kingdom, Amarna Period
Dynasty:Dynasty 18
Reign:reign of Akhenaten
Date:ca. 1353–1336 B.C.
Geography:From Egypt, Middle Egypt, Amarna (Akhetaten), Great Temple of the Aten, pit outside southern wall, Petrie/Carter excavations, 1891–92
Medium:Indurated limestone
Dimensions:H. 34 × W. 28 × D. 23 cm, 18.1 kg (13 3/8 × 11 × 9 1/16 in., 40 lb.)
Credit Line:Gift of Edward S. Harkness, 1921
Accession Number:21.9.3
Excavated at Amarna by Petrie and Carter 1891–92. Received by Lord Amherst in the division of finds. Purchased by the Museum at Sotheby's, London (Amherst sale), 1921.
Petrie, William Matthew Flinders, Sir 1894. Tell el Amarna (London, 1894). 1894. London, 18, pl. I, 13.
Williams, Caroline Ransom 1930. "Two Egyptian Torsos from the Main Temple of the Sun at El ʿAmarneh." In Metropolitan Museum Studies, 3/1, entire, fig. 1-4.
Vandier, Jacques 1958. Manuel d'archéologie égyptienne: Les grandes époques: La statuaire, 3. Paris, 336, 340.
Hayes, William C. 1959. Scepter of Egypt II: A Background for the Study of the Egyptian Antiquities in the Metropolitan Museum of Art: The Hyksos Period and the New Kingdom (1675-1080 B.C.). Cambridge, Mass.: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, p. 285, fig. 173.
Aldred, Cyril 1968. Akhenaten, Pharaoh of Egypt, New Aspects of Antiquity, London: Thames & Hudson, p. 133, pl. 88.
Aldred, Cyril 1973. Akhenaten & Nefertiti. New York: Brooklyn Museum, p. 93, no. 93.
Freed, Rita, Elena Pischikova, Yvonne J. Markowitz, and Sue D'Auria 1999. Pharaohs of the Sun: Akhenaten, Nefertiti, Tutankhamen. Boston, no. 86, p. 230 (R. Freed)
No. 86, p. 230 ( R. Fried)
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Hill, Marsha 2011. "Petrie, Amarna, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art." In The Akhenaten Sun, 17/2, p. 13.
2012. In the Light of Amarna. 100 Years of the Nefertiti Discovery. Berlin: Ägyptisches Museum und Papyrussammlung, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, p. 158 (M. Hill essay); 228-9.
Hill, Marsha 2018. "The Petrie-Carter Fragments from the Sanctuary Zone of the Great Aten Temple: The Decoration of Amarna Sacred Architecture." In Les édifices du règne d'Amenhotep IV - Akhénaton — Urbanisme et Révolution: Actes du colloque international organisé par Archéovision –Université Bordeaux 3 — ANR ATON 3D et l’équipe Égypte Nilotique et Méditerranéenne, Montpellier, 18-19 novembre 2011, CENiM 20, pp. 62, 67, fig. 27.
Thompson, Kristin and Marsha Hill 2024. Statuary from Royal Buildings at Amarna: Its Creation and Contexts. London, as GAT 138 pp. 398f., 406, 414, 504, 511, 516.
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