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Ancient Egypt Magazine

Issue Two - July / August 2000

Pharoahs of the Sun

When Kay and John Bellinger of Sheffield visited the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, USA, earlier in the year, they received a special preview of the “Pharaohs of the Sun” exhibition. The exhibition had curious echoes of other times and places. Kay Bellinger reports.

Credits: All photographs from the Exhibition Catalogue. Translation of Amarna hymn by John Foster, Hymns, Prayers & Songs: An Anthology of Egyptian Lyric Poetry, 1995

Thanks to an introduction to the curator of the MFA by Dr Rosalie David of the Egyptology Department at Manchester University, we were able to enjoy an hour and a half privately viewing this wonderful exhibition before it opened to the public. The museum is quite modern and the exhibition itself was very spacious, which made it easy to underestimate the number of objects on view (over 300), many, of course, being on loan especially for the exhibition from more than 30 institutions and private collections all over the world.

The artefacts included sculptures, statues both large and small, stelae, glassware, pottery, jewellery, tools and misc­ell­aneous items such as basket ware, a window grille, and even a pair of scales. Two enormous figures of Akhenaten excavated by Henri Chevrier featured prominently in the exhibition.

Although the title would imply the exhibition would include a considerable amount on Tutankhamun, or even Ay and Horemheb, who were of course also resident at Amarna, it really concentrated on Akhenaten (Amenhotep IV), whose reign lasted 17 years (1353-1336 BC), 12 of which were spent at Amarna. Aten, the god whom Akhenaten promoted, and for whom he changed his name, was an early creator god of Heliopolis, which was the centre of sun culture in the Old Kingdom. 

Amarna has been excavated for around 100 years, but now it would be difficult to imagine that it must have housed well over 20,000 people. Petrie excavated the site in 1892 helped by a 17 year old Howard Carter and the work continues today under notable people such as Barrie Kemp.

There were a considerable number of sculptured heads on view; one that did catch the eye was Tutankhamun wearing a blue crown.  (Tutankhamun changed the ending of his name from “Aten” on returning to Thebes and on the restoration of the supremacy of the god Amun). There is part of a hand behind his head which was more than likely that of Amun, the statue being originally part of the dyad. Amun himself is shown in another bronze and gold statue of great delicacy and quality, although on this occasion he is not given his tall plumes. Sometimes the god is depicted as a ram with curved horns. This god of Thebes was obviously very closely linked with King Tutankhamun, as indicated by numerous artefacts.

King Tutankhamun’s statues are leaner, and more formal restraint replaces fleshiness when com­pared with those of Akhenaten.  Breasts are treated as muscles. Another example showed a lovely statue of the god Amun in full plume, with the young king standing between his knees, but unfortunately in this one the king’s head is lost.

Some of the finest examples of post-Amarna art work belong to the age of Horemheb, Tutankhamun’s commander-in-chief.  Horemheb is portrayed as a scribe in one example, and also as the falcon-headed standard bearer of Amun.

There were several heads of Nefertiti on display, showing her in various ages, but apart from the famous sculpture there was one that particularly caught the eye. This, with eyes prepared for inlays, meant that the famous Amarna characteristics were less evident, and may be a better likeness of her.  One lovely full-length statue portrayed her as an older woman with dignity and ability. There were also statuettes of the princesses; the most breathtaking was one of a princess with a side lock, which had been lent to the exhibition by the Louvre.

A series of heads of Akhenaten’s daughters, intended for composite sculptures, was found in the Thutmose workshop at Amarna. The face of Akhenaten, which is not a whole head, but mask-like, also shows a more normal aspect to the features. And speaking of well-known faces, the incredible one of Queen Tiye wearing a Hathor headdress made of yew and acacia woods, with silver, gold, linen and glass to enhance it was on display.

The polychrome glass, which was a speciality of Amarna, distinctive for its mid-blue, beige-yellow and cream colouring was also on display. Although the colours are not vivid, they do have a jewel like quality. The decorated colourings are of applied glass threads, which were put into the matrix, formed around a sandy core. One famous piece, the fish with blue face and yellow lips, which featured prominently at the exhibition, was on loan from the British Museum. There was a beautiful miniature hes vase, made of calcite, carnelian, obsidian and glass, showing a princess standing on a lotus (an Egyptian version of the birth of Venus standing on a shell).

As regards the stelae on show, there were of course some of the royal family in an informal situation, which gave another look at the princesses. However, one made for outside the wall of a house is probably of a mid-level bureaucrat, with access to the king. It depicted two men named Menena and Yaya enjoying the attentions of two ladies named Tasheti and Mery, who were offering wine. The ladies’ dresses were not as tight as those drawn on official tomb paintings, nor as loose as the flowing robes of Queen Nefertari.  They were white in colour, full-length, semi-fitting, and the sleeves were nearly elbow length. The bodice appeared to be semi-opaque. The dresses have an outline reminiscent of the style of evening dress worn by Nancy Reagan, the American ex-president’s wife.

Two items of sculpture were outstanding.  The first was a statuette of a king, wearing the blue war crown and uraeus and a similar coloured broad collared necklace –my the facial features were  reminiscent of a serious Tutankhamun, while also being similar to the masked face of Akhenaten. The figure was like that of a young child. The other piece was a pair of wonderful clasped hands that have come from a larger statue of two people. Carved in broad quartzite, the left hand is that of a woman, and the right hand is of unknown gender. There was also a very athletic and trim looking granite statue of Tuthmosis III.

Some of the smaller items were equally interesting. For one with equestrian knowledge, the snaffle bit, made of two sections and jointed in the middle was intriguing. Some forms of the snaffle bit are still in use today. The long sidepieces are of a similar idea to the modern fulmer snaffle, to give leverage to the poll area behind the ears of the horse (top of the cervical). They do have spikes on them, which means that they could have been affixed into some other material meaning, however, that the bit would have less flexibility in the mouth. The bit is scored round with a spiral design, also seen in some modern snaffles, and this gives a little more severity on the bars of the horse’s mouth, the part just behind the front teeth. The bit has some semblance of the bits used to drive a horse rather than ride. This item was on loan from the Ashmolean Museum.

The pottery did not form a large part of this exhibition, but did show links by trade from the various countries of origin. A polychrome grape cluster looked as though it might be strung on a necklace.  The beads were in the colour and size of blackcurrants, with some others being the colour of green onyx.

Amenhotep IV’s Karnak Temple reliefs included scenes that had never hitherto appeared, such as vignettes of daily life, and the Queen is shown in an important role in the affairs of state.

Parts of the exhibition had sound commentaries, and one section of the museum was set aside for a very good short film about Amarna. One lovely extract showed an illustration with the royal family standing by the balcony-like “Window of Appear­ance” where they showed themselves to the people of their city. The sun glare fully behind them would give them a magnificent aura. There was an excellent large table model of the Amarna site as it would have looked at its zenith.

There was also an interactive computer program for the children who could, for example, put various crowns on the kings. On leaving the exhibition there was a well thought-out gift shop dedicated to the exhib­ition.  (The illustrated catalogue of the exhibition is still available on the museum web site (http://www. mfa.org/shop) at a cost of $29.95 plus shipping). The MFA itself also has an excellent general gift shop and several restaurants and so we had a wonderful meal before having a quick browse around the other galleries.

We left the exhibition with mem­ories of a weathered looking, but delightful statuette of Akhenaten as a family man kissing a child on his knee.

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