Material: Polyresin
Height: 27 cm, Width: 13 cm, Depth: 18 cm. Weight: 3,2 kg
Skulpture based on a portrait of an Armana-Princess, 18th Dynasty, ca. 1340 BC.
This figurine has been individually manufactured by highly trained experienced and skilled craftsmen. It meets the high quality requirements of the Parastone studios in s-Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands.
Pharao Amenhotep IV ruled the New Kingdom from 1353 to 1336 BC. He soon renamed himself Akhenaton and founded a new capital Akhetaten (the current El Amarna) where he ceased to be polytheistic and startet to solely worship Aten, the solar disk. In art history, Akhenaten is important because he had the first, life-like, naturalistic portraits made at the workshop led by the master sculptor Thutmose. Until that time, only static, idealising portraiture had existed.
The famous workshop primarily created composite sculptures. Specialised artisans each made a specific part of the sculpture such as the head, arms, legs, the wig or the headwear. These were carved from various types of stone giving the whole a colourful appearance. For instance, to emulate the skin tone, they used red quartzit.
Akhenaten's successor, Tutankhamun restored polytheism and traditional art forms as well as returning the capital to Memphis or Thebes. Many unfinished statues were found during the excavation of Thutmose's workshop in 1912, including three wonderful portraits of Akhenaten's daughters and his wife Nefertiti.
The hollows where the eyebrows should be were to be inlaid with semi-precious stones. The remarkably long skulls could indicate a hereditary physical deformity, but could also have been caused by the binding of the infant's skulls. However, it could also perhaps be an artistic exaggeration of contemporary beauty ideals.