The art of the painter of this period excels in the depiction of animal and plant life. The winding, tangled stems and leaves of vines were carefully studied; the rapid motions of animals were correctly caught; and it has been said that in these things the artists of Akhnaton were greater than those in any other Oriental art[72]. Sculpture in the round, too, reached a pitch of excellence never before known. The statue of Akhnaton illustrated opposite is the work of one who may rank with Donatello, if not with Cellini.
Akhnaton.
(From a statuette in the Louvre.)
It is possible that Auta, the chief sculptor of Queen Tiy,[73] is the creator of this statue, and perhaps also of the head, probably, of Akhnaton’s daughter shown opposite next page. In the tomb of Huya there is a scene representing this artist seated in his studio giving the final touches to a statue of Princess Baketaton. He sits upon a low stool, palette in hand, and, as was the custom, colours the surface of the statue. Unlike the stiff conventional poses of earlier work, the attitude of the young girl is easy and graceful. One hand hangs by her side: in the other she holds a pomegranate, which she is about to raise to her lips. Auta’s assistant stands beside the figure, and near by two apprentices work upon objects of less importance, their chisels on a table by their side.
Works such as these which Auta and his companions were turning out are permanent memorials of the reign of Akhnaton, which will carry his name through the years until, as he would say, “the swan turns black and the crow turns white.” There must surely come a time, and soon, when the art of Egypt will receive more attention; and one may then hear Akhnaton’s name coupled with that of the Medici as the patron, if not the teacher, of great masters. It was he who released them from convention, and bade their hands repeat what their eyes saw; and it was he who directed those eyes to the beauties of nature around them. He, and no other, taught them to look at the world in the spirit of life, to infuse into the cold stone something of the “effulgence which comes from Aton”; and, if these few treasures which have survived the utter wreck of the City of the Horizon have put one’s heart to a happy step, it was Akhnaton who first set the measure.
5. AKHNATON’S AFFECTION FOR HIS FAMILY.
In about the thirteenth year of the reign a fifth daughter was born, who was named Neferneferura. This seems to have been the first daughter born after the changes in the religion recorded at the beginning of this chapter[74] had taken place; and it is significant that the name of Aton, of which all the previous daughters’ names had been compounded, now gives place to Ra. A sixth daughter seems to have made her appearance somewhat over a year later, some time during the fourteenth year of the reign. Again Ra is used in the name instead of Aton, she being called Setepenra. It is impossible to say what was the meaning of this slight change in the theological aspect of the religion at this period, but it seems evident that certain developments in which Ra figured were now introduced.
Head of Akhnaton’s Daughter.