The Exclusive Nature of Touch in Amarna Period Art

Transcription

1 The Exclusive Nature of Touch in Amarna Period Art MA Thesis Lorien Yonker Jonah Rosenberg, Advisor The Academy of Art University December 17,

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3 Table of Contents Abstract 4 Introduction 5 Literature review 7 Iconography of touch in Egyptian art 9 Gender in Amarna art 11 Touch in domestic scenes of the royal family 13 Touch between Akhenaten and Nefertiti 18 Touch between the king and the Aten 22 Conclusion 28 Index of figures 31 Works Cited 43 3

4 Abstract This essay examines touch in art of the Amarna period as a visualization of the exclusive and proprietary relationship between the king and the god, and aspects of that relationship that necessarily extend to other members of the royal family. Specific attention is given to the dynamic interactions of the royal family as reflections of the Aten s immediate presence among them. Touch between Nefertiti and the king is shown to be an embodiment of the solar cycle and an assurance of the future of the Aten cult. Finally, an examination of scenes of the Aten engaging directly with the king suggests that these scenes reflect their physical oneness. Building on previous examinations of the familial relationship between the Aten, Akhenaten, and Nefertiti as a visual device that supported the legitimacy of the king and the Aten cult, the argument presented here enhances our understanding of the role of intimacy in the Amarna period. Examination of specific artworks, as well as consistencies within groups of objects, shows that touch is used not to create a sense of ephemeral naturalism or domestic accessibility, but rather to distance the royals from their predecessors and enforce the exclusive nature of the king s relationship with the Aten. 4

5 Introduction The notion that touch, in any period of art history, reflects an emotional bond or domestic harmony, relies on modern concepts about gender, intimacy, and family. By looking at touch in Egypt s Amarna period solely as a way of depicting unity within the royal family we do ourselves a disservice. 1 Certainly, creating visual unity was one consideration of the period; but there are numerous other factors that must also be considered if we wish to understand why and how touch was used as a tool of visual communication in the Amarna period. By setting aside the idea that the highly intimate and personal images of the royal family in the Amarna period were intended as snapshots into the life of the king and instead recognizing them as regally-dictated visualizations of the king s new doctrine we can better understand how these images served to isolate the royal family. Amarna artists visually placed the king and his family in an unprecedented place of equality with the divine; a plane that in Akhenaten s case created overlap between himself and his god. 1 For examination of touch as an enhancement of visual unity see i.a., Whitney Davis, Two Compositional Tendencies in Amarna Relief AJA 82, no. 3 (1978): ; Mary Ann Eaverly, Tan Men/Pale Women: Color and Gender in Archaic Greece and Egypt, A Comparative Approach (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2013), 81-82; and Elizabeth L. Meyers, Component Design as Narrative Device in Amarna Tomb Art, Studies in the History of Art 16 (1985):

6 Akhenaten cast himself as the physical manifestation of the god s power on earth. The need to uphold and visualize that special relationship was at the core of the Amarna period s artistic revolution. The following examination of touch looks to unpack the meaning behind these shockingly intimate and domestic images. Touch in Amarna art will be shown not to humanize the royal family, but to convey the exclusive nature of their relationship with the Aten. This relationship is founded on the corporeal binary between Akhenaten and the god, most powerfully exemplified in images where the king and the god are shown to have a physical connection that approaches oneness. This essay will explore the three modes of touch. First, in images of the royal family touch enforced a sense of immediacy and temporality that made clear that the god s presence was uniquely direct. That relationship was in opposition to the distant and restricted relationship their subjects held with the god. Second, touch between the king and queen showed the royal couple s exclusive role in the continuity of the Aten cult and the solar cycle, and allowed Akhenaten to fill certain ritual roles that the non-physical Aten could not. Finally, touch between the king and the god served to uphold the king as an object of divinity and veneration. It also depicted the unique physical oneness between the Aten and Akhenaten. 6

7 Literature Review The intimacy and naturalism of the Amarna period have received much scholarly attention, particularly following Norman de Garis Davies s publication of the Rock Cut Tombs of Amarna between 1903 and Those revolutionary depictions of the king and his family were easily sensationalized, with some of the earliest examinations of the period following a distinctly Judeo-Christian theological bent. Even modern writers such as Robert North, in 1977, infer that the harmonious and fecund family was blessed as result of their purported monotheism. Amongst early archaeologists, the novel physiognomy and softened form with which Akhenaten was presented were characterized as grotesque deformities, or manifestations of some physical ailment, Alexandre Moret being the first to claim hermaphroditism in That practice continues to this day, more recently with Alwyn Burridge s 1996 article citing Marfan s syndrome as the explanation for the king s odd appearance. Yet these authors gloss over other indications of a programmatic reinvention of the visual arts under the rule of Akhenaten. Exhibitions such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art s The Royal Women of Amarna in 1997, and the Museum of Fine Arts Boston s Pharaohs of the Sun in 1999, along with their accompanying catalogs, have provided scholars of the Amarna period with the comprehensive and chronological view necessary to re-evaluate Akhenaten s reforms as intentional reflections of his revolutionary religious 7

8 doctrine. Dorothea Arnold of the Metropolitan Museum gave particular focus to the elevated role of Nefertiti and her daughters, along with other royal women such as Tiye and Kiya. The public precedence of Nefertiti has also piqued the interest of scholars such as Julia Samson and Joyce Tyldesley, who both characterize her as a sort of co-regent in life and, quite possibly, pharaoh after Akhenaten s death as Neferneferuaten. A fuller understanding of the doctrine of the so-called Heretic King, as dubbed by Donald Redford in 1984, has been undertaken in recent studies by James Hoffmeier and Erik Hornung. Hornung questions the treatment of Akhenaten s doctrine as monotheism and instead characterizes the Aten as a sort of esoteric energy rather than a physical deity. This idea is also present in the writings of Orly Goldwasser. All describe the supra-physical nature of the Aten, as the contemporary Egyptian worshipper would have understood it, and emphasize the king s singular relationship with that god. Considering the Aten as a symbol for a sort of universal, divine energy which is shared with and accessible only through the king allows us to understand the prevalence of physical touch in the Amarna period as an important reflection of the cult s doctrine, rather than a sign of slackening social divides as scholars such as Whitney Davis, in her examination of the new compositional forms of the period, might have us believe. 8

9 Touch in Egyptian Iconography The Aten, unlike the traditional Egyptian deities, lacked a body. This necessarily impacted artistic representations of interaction with the divine. In the earliest years of Akhenaten s reign the god was given hands at the end of its rays for the specific purpose of interacting with the king and his family. In some cases this took traditional forms such as presenting the ankh to the king, which is common in Amarna reliefs as well as and in earlier temples such as Karnak (fig. 1). Yet other acts were not possible to depict. It is these forms of touch that were dramatically reinvented to take place between the royals. As a result, intimacy and naturalism in depictions of the royal family have long been hailed as hallmarks of the Amarna period, with touch a major contributor. 2 Depictions of touch were not entirely new to the period. Acts such as handholding, clasping of arms, embracing, and kissing are all seen in the art of earlier dynasties. In these images touch serves to indicate unity between individuals, often in the form of pair statues (fig. 2), or unity between the pharaoh and the gods (figs. 3-4), and are typically exclusive to the funerary context. Touch is both formalized and ritualized, one element of the static canon of Egyptian art. Depictions of touch in the Amarna 2 On intimacy and naturalism see John D. Cooney, Amarna Reliefs from Heliopolis in American Collections (Brooklyn: Brooklyn Museum, 1965), 4; Robert Hari, New Kingdom Amarna Period: the Great Hymn to the Aten (Leiden: Brill, 1985), 18; Erik Hornung, Akhenaten and the Religion of Light (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1999), 36-37; Gay Robins, Proportion and Style in Ancient Egyptian Art (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1994), 119; and Edna Russman, Egyptian Sculptures: Cairo and Luxor (Austin: Univertsity of Texas Press, 1994),

10 period, though similar in action, are revolutionary because they take place between living people namely Akhenaten and Nefertiti and the divine. Further, they are set on a contemporary, often even domestic, plane. This programmatic reinvention of touch and intimacy also allows the king to perform those acts that are physically impossible for the Aten. These changes restriction to images of the royal family alongside the increase in touch, intimacy and naturalism indicate something highly exclusive to the royal family. 3 This serves to emphasize the singularity of the relationship between the king and the god- no longer restricted to ritual or funerary settings, but part of his daily reality. 3 No examples of a non-royal interacting directly with the Aten exist, not even in the well-preserved tomb of Meryre, who was chief seer of the disc in the house of the disc at Akhetaten and effectively the cult s second-in-command behind Akhenaten. Donald B. Redford, The Sun-Disc in Akhenaten s Program: Its worship and Antecedents, II, Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt 17 (1980):

11 Gender in Amarna Art Intimacy and touch in Egyptian art, before the Amarna period, had been used to visualize both human-to-human relationships and the benevolent interaction of the divine. 4 These took new forms as the ritual role of gender and the concept of the divine evolved in the Amarna period, and as interaction with the divine becomes more restrictive. In the earliest years of their reign, Nefertiti and Akhenaten both took on physical, iconographic and ritual characteristics that had previously been reserved for the opposite sex. 5 For example, in colossal statues at Karnak (fig. 5), Akhenaten is shown with enlarged breasts and hips, which were associated in the Egyptian tradition with female fertility, while in the Wilbour Plaque Nefertiti wears the cap crown more often associated with the pharaoh (fig. 6). 6 Where his predecessors depicted themselves with a stylized male physique and costume, Akhenaten during the early throes of his revolution depicted himself more naturalistically, softened in a way that borders on feminine, and in doing so gave visual form to his break from 4 For example, the many images from individual Book of the Dead papyri in which the deceased is guided by Anubis, Horus, or Isis. 5 Dorothea Arnold, The Royal Women of Amarna: Images of Beauty from Ancient Egypt (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1996), 36; Eaverly, Tan Men/Pale Women, For a thorough examination of the colossi and interpretation of their meaning see Lisa Manniche, The Akhenaten Colossi of Karnak (New York: American University in Cairo Press, 2010). 11

12 the traditional solar gods as well as his corporeal connection to the non-gendered Aten. 7 Yet as Akhenaten aged, his radical genderless image seemingly succumbed to the need to uphold his legacy and sustain his cult. Despite Akhenaten s revolutionary relationship to the god, the concept of solar regeneration remained key to the Atenist understanding of the universe, and the rituals of kingship. Thus the continuation of Akhenaten s reforms also depended on his ability to produce heirs. Herein lay the artistic rub : how to continue to show regeneration and fertility concepts deeply tied to physical intimacy on both the mundane and cosmic planes when the divine is a singular, non-sexual entity, and the king the reflection of that divinity? Artists of the Amarna period found a solution, in part, by giving the distant solar deity linear rays culminating in hands. This allowed the Aten to remain distant from the ordinary world while simultaneously interacting with the king and his family directly. 8 Additionally, touch between the king and the queen reflected the king s corporeal identification with the Aten, allowing him to embody the physical act of creation and fertility that was so essential to the Egyptian concept of solar regeneration and the future of the Aten cult. As the concept of royal intimacy becomes less interpersonal, and more a mode of visualizing Akhenaten s revolutionary ideology; touch becomes more significant than ever before. 7 Hornung, Akhenaten and the Religion of Light, Ibid,

13 Touch in domestic scenes of the royal family The idea of a holy family had long existed in Egyptian religion in the form of divine triads like Osiris, Isis and their child Horus or Amen, Mut and their child Konsu. Those triads combined to form potent enneads, such as those worshipped in Heliopolis since the 5 th dynasty, and formed the backbone of Egyptian cosmological belief as well as the pattern for divine kingship. 9 The holy family in the Amarna period was revolutionary in that it was composed of living people Akhenaten, Nefertiti, and their children rather than divinities, and it boiled all of that creative power down to a single creator and his offspring, Akhenaten and Nefertiti. 10 Depictions of this royal family were similarly inventive, showing the king and queen not as the sort of nascent deities their predecessors had been, but full-blown gods in their own right. The ability to interact with the Aten the most absolute and omnipotent deity in Egyptian history in a way that was tactile and direct, enforced the family s divine status. This was held in direct opposition to the distant and mediated relationship their subjects held with the god. While the doctrine of Atenism prohibited the general 9 H. te Velde, Some Remarks on the Structure of Egyptian Divine Triads, JEA, Vol.57 (Aug., 1971), pp While Nefertiti never claims direct parentage from the Aten as does Akhenaten, early depictions of the royal couple equate them with the divine pair Shu and Tefnut, forming a divine triad with the creator god Ptah, later equated with the Aten. For further investigation see Rita Freed, Yvonne Markowitz and Sue D auria, eds. Pharaohs of the Sun: Akhenaten, Nefertiti, Tutankhamun (Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1999), 107; Hornung, Akhenaten and the Religion of Light, 57; and Julia Samson, Nefertiti s Regality, Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 63 (1977),

14 populace from worshipping the Aten directly, they could instead turn to the royal family as embodiments of the divine. 11 Depictions of the royal family served to highlight the division between the rulers and their subjects by placing the royals in a position of unquestionable power, with unique access to the divine and, in fact, as divinities themselves. This finds support in the archaeological context where the majority of such images are found; either in tombs or household shrines intended for private, individual worship. 12 For example, scenes featuring the window of appearances common in tombs of the upper-class citizens of Akhetaten; Davies documents examples in such top-level officials as Meryre, Huya, and Ay (figs. 7-9). In each of these images the Aten forms the pinnacle of the scene, with the royal family below and the recipient of their material blessings on the lower tier. The king occupies the window where he receives the touch of the Aten s rays, often joined by the princesses and queen. The royal women also engage through touch or are touched by the Aten s hands. In the relief from Ay s tomb (fig. 7) in which the daughters are present, note the way the princess behind Nefertiti is rendered with her left arm around her mother s 11 Arnold, The Royal Women of Amarna, 4-5. James Hoffmeier, Akhenaten and the Origins of Monotheism (Oxford: Oxford University press, 2015), 87; Emily Teeter, Religion and Ritual in Ancient Egypt (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2011), The overall shape of the objects and their archaeological context - where known - point to this ritual function, which is reinforced by their inner framing by slender columns, longstanding indications of ceremonial objects. See Salima Ikram, Domestic Shrines of the Cult of the Royal Family at El- Amarna, JEA 75 (1989): ; Anna Stevens, The Material Evidence for Domestic Religion at Amarna and Preliminary Remarks on Its Interpretation, JEA 89 (2003): ; and Arnold, The Royal Women of Amarna,

15 shoulder; while the princess in front of Nefertiti gazes back at her and touches her chin, her other finger gesturing towards the crowd. Between their faces the Aten offers an ankh, and touches the queen s uraeus. The family and the divine occupy not only the same ritual space, but also the same physical space, with the architectural form of the window enforcing the notion that this relationship was inaccessible to their subjects. The touch of the Aten s rays is restricted to the architectural frame of the window, which is indicated by a set of flanking columns topped with a series of uraei; each with a sun disc atop its head. These scenes are designed with a consistent visual hierarchy that is reflective of the king s new doctrine rather than a new social unity enforcing the family s separation from their predecessors through their intimate and unique interactions with the divine. 13 The window of appearances was an architectural innovation of the eighteenth dynasty, which allowed the king to have more regular interaction with his subjects. 14 However, the same innovation that allowed for more regular interaction also provided separation between the king and his subjects during those encounters. The window of appearances at Akhetaten was raised, accessed via a 13 Textual evidence indicates that the king was very much at the head of the new artistic program at Akhetaten. For example, on a stele now in Berlin (AM 31009), the royal sculptor Bek calls himself the Apprentice whom His Majesty has taught. See Aldred, Akhenaten King of Egypt, The window of appearances is first employed at Thebes, where it took the form of a lintel decorated with a falcon or sphinx; see Redford, The Sun-Disc in Akhenaten s Program, 21. However, the only surviving depictions of the window are from Akhetaten, where it takes on a more simplified architectural form and is shown raised above eye level. While the window itself does not survive at Akhetaten, the progressive raising of the window in subsequent dynasties suggests elevation was an important element of its design; see Barry Kemp, The Window of Appearances at El-Amarna, and the Basic Structure of this City, JEA 62 (1976):

16 ramp or possibly part of a bridge spanning the royal road. 15 This created an architectural barrier between the king and his audience as well as a controlled viewing angle. The window thus served to enforce the proprietary relationship between the ruler and the divine by visually and physically separating the king from his subjects, and the inclusion of touch serves to enhance that divide. 16 The window of appearances functioned as one element in a highly regulated daily procession, in which the king and queen appeared to their people and traveled by chariot down the royal road to the Aten temple, a rather theatrical production that seems intended to mimic the sun s daily journey. Where the window of appearances was a real physical place, where living citizens interacted with the royal family, other, more domestic scenes of the royal family were also used in private worship of the family as gods in their own right. These depicted scenes the average citizen would never have dreamt of bearing witness to in real life. Depicting only members of the royal family, these images are distinctly less hierarchical, and within them touch and gesture between the family members and the god create dynamism and intimacy. More direct interaction with the god indicates that the Aten is not a distant observer, but present and engaged with the royal family, something which was not possible in scenes where their subjects were present. 15 Kemp (1976, 2012) espouses the ramp, whereas Pendlebury (1980) argues for the bridge spanning the royal road. Kemp, The Window of Appearances at El- Amarna, J.D.S. Pendlebury, The City of Akhenaten, III (London: Egypt Exploration Society, 1980), 34-43, Redford, The Sun-Disc in Akhenaten s Program,

17 In a stele in Berlin (fig. 10), for example, the daughter balanced on Nefertiti s lap holds her hand while a second, smaller princess toys with her crown. The king, opposite, looks poised to kiss the young daughter held in his arms, who in turn reaches her hand back towards that of the Aten. Similar indications of immediacy through touch are present in many other relief scenes, for example in a dining scene drawn by Davies (fig. 11). Here, in front of offering tables laden with fruits and flowers, the royal family enjoys a meal; likely skewered meats. At left, two princesses playfully hold hands, knees grazing as they face one another. At right, Nefertiti reaches one hand down towards her small daughter who holds her hands up with palms raised. These small acts of touch contribute to the familiarity of the scene, indicating that this is not a ritual offering being left at a temple altar, but a meal being enjoyed in the company of the god. To the worshipper viewing these shrines, these images would have visualized a relationship between the royal family and the divine that was not only in opposition to their distant and restrictive one, but also one which was more domestic and intimate than that of previous rulers. These images enforced the idea that Nefertiti and Akhenaten were fully divine, and the depictions of touch within them served not to humanize the family but to elevate them through a relationship with the god that was emphatically different than that of their people and predecessors. 17

18 Touch between Akhenaten and Nefertiti Dorothea Arnold has argued that Nefertiti s role in the new religion was equal to that of her husband, and Tyldesley calls her the most influential woman in the ancient world. 17 Despite these acknowledgements of Nefertiti s unprecedented importance, the depictions of touch between the king and queen have largely been taken at face value as intimate glimpses into the life of the royal family. These images have only recently begun to be examined through the lens of Akhenaten s religious reforms. 18 The above exploration of gender in Amarna art has suggested that, despite substantial changes to the theological concepts of femininity and masculinity, the belief that the continuity of the universe depended on a sort of cosmic regeneration persisted. The language of the Hymn to the Aten equates the rising of the sun to a physical embrace and to the creation of life, and later declares of the god the earth exists in your hand, just as you have made it. When you rise, it lives, when you set, it dies. You yourself are lifetime and it is by you that men live. 19 The examination of this concept, knowing the divine was sexless and incorporeal yet had the king as its direct intermediary, provides important context for the frequent depictions of intimacy and touch between the king and queen in the Amarna period. 17 Arnold, The Royal Women of Amarna, 10, Joyce Tyldesley, Nefertiti: Egypt s Sun Queen (New York: Penguin Press, 1998), For other examinations see Freed, Pharaohs of the Sun, 28-29; and Tyldesley, Nefertiti, Hymn to the Aten, 12, trans. Barbara Watterson, Amarna: Egypt s Age of Revolution (Gloucestershire: Tempus, 199),

19 By the time of the eighteenth dynasty the role of the queen had come to be tied not only to that solar regeneration but also to the divine endorsement of dynastic succession. 20 While Akhenaten s doctrine allowed him to take on both male and female characteristics as a reflection of his non-gendered deity, Nefertiti s role as Akhenaten s physical feminine counterpart her ability to mother children was essential for the future of the kingship, the Aten cult and the continuity of the universe itself. Yet the queen could no longer be the god s wife, responsible for the arousal of the divine, when the divine was sexless. This conundrum was resolved through the person of Akhenaten, who had by this point integrated the role of the god into the person of the king. 21 Akhenaten s revolutionary doctrine had blurred the divisions between royal and divine power, thus his intimacy with Nefertiti could express the king s role as the Aten s physical presence on earth. 22 This was an essential step in allowing the royal couple to take on some of the more physical ritual roles the sexless god could no longer fulfill, and allowed the queen to continue filling the conceptual role of god s wife while simultaneously cementing Akhenaten s divine image. In a system that no longer relied on the traditional binary between the king and god, intimacy between the royal couple is intimacy with the divine. Akhenaten is the Aten. Overt artistic implications of sexual intimacy between Nefertiti and Akhenaten come in scenes of Nefertiti pouring, common enough that numerous examples survive and 20 Aldred, Akhenaten King of Egypt, Redford, The Sun-Disc in Akhenaten s Program, Samson, Nefertiti s Regality,

20 similarly abundant with fruits and flowers. In an unfinished depiction of the royal couple (fig. 12), for example, we see an intimate scene in which Akhenaten, seated at left, presents a goblet that the queen fills, standing close enough to brush the king s knee. In another large relief from a private Amarna tomb (fig. 13), Akhenaten is seated and proffers his cup to the queen. She is further away this time, bending over a princess who stands between them, emblematic of their fruitful union. The queen pours liquid into the king s cup, concurrently filling her own. While drinking scenes may not automatically conjure thoughts of sexuality, consider that the verb seti meant both to pour and to impregnate, and depictions of the act of pouring served allude to fertility, birth and rebirth as aspects of sexuality. 23 Having isolated himself, the god s son, as the only living person who could understand and interpret the Aten, a stable legacy for Akhenaten s reforms could only be achieved through the production of heirs. 24 Thus the surroundings for so many sensual images of the king and queen as a couple are verdant with flowers and fruits symbols of the Aten s fertility and include the royal children to reflect Akhenaten s virility. Take for example a relief now in the Louvre (fig. 14), in which the queen sits on the king s lap, her feet dangling freely from a diaphanous gown and a child on her lap, one diminutive arm holding on to the crook of the queen s elbow. Akhenaten, in turn, raises his foot to balance and support the queen, facing him, and the child in symmetrical pose on her lap. Or take the Berlin stele (fig. 15) in which the queen leans in towards her husband, both hands around his neck and 23 Robins, Proportion and Style in Ancient Egyptian Art, Teeter, Religion and Ritual,

21 her face smilingly upturned towards his. A recreation of the full scene suggests the queen s diaphanous gown may have fallen revealingly open, and her juxtaposition to Akhenaten s face would have required a rather inventive overlap between their bodies. In many of these images the architectural features that surround the king and queen are in fact a birth bower, a structure indicated by reed walls and highly charged with connotations of birth and, more importantly, rebirth. 25 The presence of the princesses, paramount in communicating that these acts of touch depict a divine intimacy, reflected the continuity of the kingship and of the Aten cult. 26 Certain depictions of Nefertiti with the king were purposefully sexualized, through entendre and touch; as a way of contextualizing Akhenaten s own virility as a reflection of the Aten s creative power. This allowed for the conceptual continuation of the solar cycle as well as the creation of heirs who would continue the administration of the Aten cult. These images, which have traditionally been viewed as emotive and intimate, should instead be considered, as Arnold suggests, as esoteric objects that required a deep understanding of long-standing Egyptian theological and political tradition and which are indicative of Atenist theology Arnold, The Royal Women of Amarna, While the argument presented here relies upon surviving visual evidence, it is interesting to consider how this imagery may have differed had a male heir been acknowledged. Would Akhenaten have been quite so concerned with depicting continuity, or allowed for such as elevated female role, if a clear male successor existed? Or was his exclusion of all other males simply another intentional assertion of the isolation of power within himself? 27 Arnold, The Royal Women of Amarna,

22 Touch between the king and the Aten The unique corporeal connection between Akhenaten and the Aten must inform our examination of touch, and while we have seen the importance of the Aten s interaction within scenes of the royal family and the queen, we will conclude with an examination of the specific ways the Aten interacts with the king alone. There are two clear indicators of the importance of Akhenaten s corporeality that are consistently depicted through touch. First, in scenes where offerings are made to the Aten, the god touches those raised by the queen and princesses, but reaches through those made by Akhenaten, instead touching the king s body. Secondly, in artistic renderings of temples, the Aten s rays only enter the temple when the king is physically present. There are notable differences in the way the Aten receives those tributes from the king versus those from the royal women. In many of the tomb reliefs recorded by Davies, for example, the queen raises an offering, which the Aten receives by touching the object (figs ). The same is true for the tables heaped with food and flowers presented to the god within the same reliefs. However, in those same scenes the Aten often reaches through the objects offered by the king and instead touches his body. The Aten s act of reaching through the more traditional offerings raised by Akhenaten to touch the king s body not only seems to indicate that Akhenaten s physical body itself was an object of veneration, it also prioritizes his 22

23 form over other offerings. This is only true of the king never for the queen or princesses. Let us examine a detail from a relief in the tomb of Panhesy (fig. 18). At right, the princesses are shown shaking sistra in two registers behind Nefertiti. Three hands of the Aten touch the queen. With one, the god touches what would likely have been the top of her tall crown which has since been defaced, while a second hovers over the uraeus, in a common gesture from the period (see also figs ), which seems to both endorse her regality and ensure her protection. The third and final hand clasps the ankh, which is held to Nefertiti s mouth. The king, standing in front of Nefertiti, also receives the touch of three Aten hands, though the interaction with him is different than that with the queen. The highest hand reaches not to the king s uraeus but towards his face, while another just below it offers him the Ankh. The third hand, rather than touching a crown or uraeus, reaches for the abdomen of the king. Notably, this hand is turned in a different orientation than all others, highlighting this gesture especially. 23

24 That same turned hand is included in other offering scenes, including all four presented here. While a survey of all offering scenes from the period shows that this gesture is far from requisite, its inclusion in a great number of reliefs, and the specificity with which it is applied to the king in these instances, suggest that the physical touch between the Aten and the king is unique, even within the royal family. While scenes of the king in temples are less numerous than offering scenes, those that survived to be documented by Davies offer the strongest artistic indication of Akhenaten s unique relationship to the god, and how it was visualized through touch. Take, for example, two reliefs from the tomb of Meryre (figs ). Though rendered in different perspectives (fig. 20 from the side and fig. 21 from above), both reliefs depict a large temple complex complete with rows of laden altars, pools, and groups of prostrate worshippers. In both, the Aten is depicted at the top of the scene, rays extending to touch the wall of the temple. Yet they do not enter the space, instead the hands splay out as though resting atop the horizontal surface of the wall. When the king is not present, even if the temple is filled with people and offerings, the Aten s rays do not penetrate the interior space. Yet, in similar depictions where the king is present, for example a relief in the tomb of Panhesy (fig. 22), where the king is shown worshipping inside the temple space, the Aten s hands are shows penetrating the wall above the king, entering the temple as he makes his offering. With two the god touches the back of the king s apparently 24

25 head while another presumably offers him the ankh. The architecture of Amarna was as radical as its visual arts, and the most notable change to temples at Akhetaten was the emphasis on sunlight and open air. Even in those holy inner sancta, previously kept dark and cool and accessible only through a series of narrowing halls, Akhenaten designed his temples to allow the light of the Aten flow through, as omnipresent as it was in the Hymn to the Aten, great and shining high over all the land. 28 The ray hands reaching through to touch the king then should not be read solely as indications of the Aten s light, since that would have been ever-present. Instead, the god s touch within the temple, restricted to instances where the king is present, seems to indicate that the Aten s full attendance was dependent on the king s, or perhaps even that the two were interchangeable. This theory also finds support in the Hymn to the Aten, which states there is no one else who knows you, except for your son, Neferkhepure Waenre (Akhenaten), whom you have taught your nature and your might 29 and, even more convincingly, the second boundary stele erected by Akhenaten states of the king, I it is that am to {offer} myself {to my} father (the sun disc) in the house of the disc in Akhetaten. 30 Akhenaten s relationship with the divine was far more patrimonial and personal in concept than that of his predecessors, or indeed the other members of his family. 28 Hymn to the Aten, 1, trans. Erik Hornung, Akhenaten and the Religion of Light, Hymn to the Aten, 12, Ibid For a full translation of the second boundary stele see Kemp, The City of Akhenaten,

26 The use of a cartouche, typically reserved for the name of the reigning pharaoh, is employed around the Aten s name. Certain atypical aspects of Akhenaten s heb sed provide further support for this unique physical connection between the Aten and the king. Akhenaten s first sed festival, performed around year 6 of his reign, results not in the customary title change for the king, but instead bestows those titles that refer to the physical performance of the festival rites on the Aten. 31 These modifications to a long-standing rite of Egyptian kingship reflect a potent connection between the king and the god, in which their roles, both earthly and divine, overlap. 32 The Hymn to the Aten, likely authored by Akhenaten himself, suggests that the king was the Aten s son who emerged from his body and the pharaoh often styled himself as the beautiful child of the living Aten in his inscriptions and titulary. 33 The very name chosen by Akhenaten may be rendered He who is useful to Aten, and the king writes of himself I am your son who is useful to you and elevates your name ; both of which indicate that Akhenaten is not simply beloved of or reverent towards the god, he is the incarnation of the Aten and his actions are in service of 31 Those titles being imi hb sd and nb hb(w) sd or steward of the hed Seb and possessor of the heb Sed. 32 Eric Uphill, The Egyptian Sed Festival Rites JNES 24, no. 4 (1965), Hornung, Akhenaten and the Religion of Light, 50. Note that the descriptive who emerged from your body is notable in light of the hollowing of the term for son, which Redford notes is a hallmark of the 18 th dynasty. Son by this point was more a hierarchical term than a biological one so Akhenaten is highlighting that his is a physical rather than simply hierarchical connection to the god. Redford, Akhenaten the Heretic King,

27 the god. This is also attested to in surviving inscriptions from the period, such as one found in the tomb of Ay, which states adore the king who is unique like the disc. 34 By establishing this unique physical descent, Akhenaten lays the groundwork for his depictions of the Aten as a divine hypostasis of kingship. 35 This physical connection, bordering on oneness, becomes all the more essential when the human forms of the divine are dismissed. In the later years of his reign it allows Akhenaten to take on the physical responsibilities of the divine as part of a relationship between the king and the Aten, which becomes, as Redford calls it, a proximity bordering on identity. 36 Where previous dynasties emphasized the universal ability to approach and appease the gods directly through offerings, Akhenaten enforces the idea that the mediation of the divine is dependent upon his person. 37 Certain, exclusive forms of touch between the king and the god are reminders of that connection, so strong that the king could present himself in living, bodily form as a votive to or intermediary of the god. 38 And while the light of the Aten may shine on the temple, his presence and his works require the participation of Akhenaten. 34 Hoffmeier, Akhenaten, Redford, The Sun-Disc in Akhenaten s Program, Redford, Akhenaten the Heretic King, Teeter, Religion and Ritual, Ibid,

28 Conclusion Every aspect of Akhenaten s reformation be it political, religious or artistic served to emphasize the overarching relationship between the god and the king, with little concern for their subjects. The presence of touch in art is no exception, and while it may be tempting to see in these images a relatable vision of emotional liberation, to do so ignores the king s doctrine; which is layered into every image he commissioned. The Aten was a distant god, inaccessible were it not for the king who was his sole intermediary on earth. Their connection was physical, thus the king s body and the acts of touch it performs take on new, cosmic significance. The presence of touch in images of the royal family, the king and queen, and king and the god all serve to frame the relationship between Akhenaten and the Aten as exclusive and proprietary to the king. The royal family as a whole is shown to have a close, daily relationship with the divine, which places them on a plane above that of their predecessors and reflects a relationship with the divinity that is at odds with that of their subjects. The corollary between Akhenaten and his god also informs our interpretation of touch between the king and queen, where Akhenaten embodies the ritual role of the god in the regenerative solar cycle where the genderless Aten cannot. Illusions to the king s fertility further serve to affirm the future of the Aten cult. The most direct forms of touch from the god is reserved for the king alone, and reminds the viewer of that ever-important binary, in which the king s thoughts, 28

29 actions and person are effectively those of the Aten. While Nefertiti and the children are often included in these scenes, certain artistic consistencies such as the Aten s reach through the king s offerings and the distinctly turned hand are reserved solely for Akhenaten The recent excavations and publication of the decorative programs of the sun shade temples at Akhetaten, which were reserved for the private worship of elite women like Nefertiti and her daughters, might provide fascinating insight into when, if ever, the Aten s touch was depicted without the king s presence. 39 The limitations of time and length, combined with the dizzying number of manifestations of intimacy and touch in the Amarna period, make it impossible to address each in full here. Images of kiss, in particular, would provide a fascinating avenue for continued study. An in depth study of those images of Akhenaten and Nefertiti embracing while on their daily, chariot-bound processional might also provide revealing insights, especially in light of Williamson s suggestion that this ritual was meant to mimic the solar cycle. 40 This essay s aim has been to show how the intimate images of the Amarna period reflect a proprietary relationship between the royal family and the Aten, one that at its core relies on the king. However that distancing need not mean that human emotion is removed form the equation entirely. The stirring images from the tomb of Meketaten (fig 23), where Akhenaten and Nefertiti clasp on to one another while 39 Williamson, Nefertiti s Sun Temple, Ibid,

30 mourning the loss of their child, seems to show a more genuine and less calculated vision of touch as part of human relationships. While Akhenaten s reforms were expeditiously overthrown by his successors, and image and monuments subject to a damnation memoriae, the naturalism and energy of the Amarna style continues to be seen later in the 18 th Dynasty. For example, the depiction of Tutankhamen and queen Ankhesenamun on the back of the king s throne (fig. 24) retains the softened bodies, dynamic poses, and intimate interaction seen in images of Akhenaten and Nefertiti. Surroundings plant motifs evoke fertility and abundance, and the queen s cap crown echoes that of her spouse. Yet, with time, even these deviations would disappear, as subsequent monarchs such as Ramses II returned to the traditional canon of Egyptian art; a resounding rejection of the reforms and innovations of Akhenaten, the Heretic King. 30

31 Index of Figures Fig. 1. Relief of Senwosret I led by Atum, from Karnak. Limestone. Dynasty 12 (ca. 1930). In situ. Fig. 2. Pair statue of Ptahkhenuwy and his wife, from Giza. Painted limestone. Dynasty 5 ( ). MFA Boston

32 Fig. 3. Amenhotep III with the god Sobek. Alabaster. Dynasty 18 (ca ). Luxor J155. Fig. 4. Relief of Senwosret embraced by Ptah, from Karnak. Limestone. Dynasty 12 (ca. 1930). In situ. 32

33 Fig. 5. Colossal statue of Amenhotep IV/Akhenaten, from Karnak. Limestone. Dynasty 18 (ca BC), years 2-5. Cairo JE Fig. 6. The Wilbour Plaque, Relief showing Nefertiti in cap crown (right). Limestone. Dynasty 18 (ca or slightly later). Brooklyn Museum

34 Fig. 7. Detail of the window of appearances from the east side of the north wall of the tomb of Ay, Amarna. Drawing after Davies, Book VI plate XXIX. Fig 8. Detail of the window of appearances from the east side of the south wall of the tomb of Meryra, Amarna. Drawing after Davies, Book II plate XXXIII. 34

35 Fig 9. Detail of the window of appearances from the west side of the north wall of the tomb of Huya, Amarna. Drawing after Davies, Book III plate XVI. Fig. 10. Relief of the royal family seated beneath the Aten, from Amarna. Limestone. Dynasty 18 (ca ). Berlin

36 Fig. 11. Feasting scene from the east side of the south wall of the tomb of Huya, Amarna. Drawing after Davies, Book III Plate IV. Fig. 12. Unfinished stele of the royal family Amarna, House O Dynasty 18, reign of Akhenaten BC Limestone H cm, w cm, d. 2.8 cm Agyptisches Museum und Papyrussammlung, Berlin,

37 Fig. 13. Detail from the west side of the south wall in the tomb of Meryra II, Amarna. Drawing after Davies, Book II Plate XXXII. Fig. 14. Fragment of a stele showing Akhenaten with Nefertiti and children on his lap, from Amarna. Limestone and pigment. Dynasty XVIII ( ). Louvre E II

38 , Fig. 15. Fragment of a stele showing Akhenaten and Nefertiti. Limestone, gesso and pigment. Dynasty 18 ( ). Berlin At right, a reconstruction of the stele by Megaera Lorenz. 38

39 Fig. 16. Detail from the entrance of the tomb of Apy, Amarna. Drawing after Davies, Book IV Plate XXXI. Fig. 17. Detail from the Tomb of Panhesy, Amarna. Drawing after Davies, Book II Plate VII. Fig. 18. Detail from the Tomb of Panhesy, Amarna. Drawing after Davies, Book II Plate VIII. 39

40 Fig. 19. Detail from the Tomb of May, Amarna. Drawing after Davies, Book V Plate III. Fig. 20. Detail from the east side of the north wall in the tomb of Meryre, Amarna. Drawing after Davies, Book I Plate XXXIII. 40

41 Fig. 21. Detail from the West wall of the pillared hall in the tomb of Meryre, Amarna. Drawing after Davies, Book I Plate X. Fig. 22. Detail from the west wall of the tomb of Panhesy, Amarna. Drawing after Davies, Book II Plate XVIII 41

42 Fig. 23. Akhenaten and Nefertiti mourn the death of Princess Meketaten, Amarna. Drawing courtesy of The Amarna Project. Fig. 24. Tutankhamen and Ankhesenamun from the backrest of the king s throne, from Thebes. Wood, gold sheet, semiprecious stones. Dynasty 18 (ca ). Cairo Museum JE

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