[Illustration: _The Art of Akhnaton compared with Archaic Art._
1. The head of Akhnaton. From a contemporary drawing. 2. The head of a king. From an archaic statuette found by Professor Petrie at Abydos. 3. The head of Akhnaton. From a contemporary drawing. 4. The head of a prince. From an archaic tablet found by Professor Petrie at Abydos. 5. An archaic statuette found by Professor Petrie at Diospolis, showing the large thighs found in the art of Akhnaton.]
In the old temples of Heliopolis and elsewhere a few relics of that period, no doubt, were still preserved; and the king was thus able to study the wood and slate carvings and the ivory figures of archaic times. We of the present day can also study such figures, a few specimens having been brought to light by modern excavators; and the similarity between the treatment of the human body in this archaic art and the new art of Akhnaton at once becomes apparent. In the accompanying illustrations some archaic figures are shown, and one may perhaps see in them the origin of the idiosyncrasies of the new school. Here and in all representations of archaic men one sees the elongated skull so characteristic of the king’s style; in the ivory figure of an archaic Pharaoh one sees the well-known droop of Akhnaton’s head and his pointed chin; in the clay and ivory figures is the prominent stomach; and here also, most apparent of all, are the unaccountably large thighs and ponderous hips.
Akhnaton’s art might thus be said to be a kind of renaissance--a return to the classical period of archaic days; the underlying motive of this return being the desire to lay emphasis upon the king’s character as the representative of that most ancient of all gods, Ra-Horakhti.
Another feature of the new religion now becomes apparent. In the worship of Ra-Horakhti Aton there was an endeavour to do honour to the Pharaoh as the son of the sun, and to the god as the founder of the royal line. Tradition stated that Ra or Ra-Horakhti had once reigned upon earth, and that his spirit had passed from Pharaoh to Pharaoh. This god was thus the only true King of Heaven, and Amon was but a usurper of much more recent date. It was for this reason that the names of the new god were placed within royal cartouches; and for this reason the king was so careful to call Ra-Horakhti his “father,” and to name him “god and king.” For this reason also Akhnaton often wore the crown of Lower Egypt which was used at Heliopolis, but never the crown of Upper Egypt, which history told him did not exist when Ra ruled on earth.[30]