Inscription & Paintings
Amarna Tablet
Egyptian
replica: by artist Carrie Allen
date of the original: 1352-1336 BC
provenance of the original: now in the Egyptian Museum, Cairo
description: Painted plaque depicting the Pharaoh’s family. Plaster replica. Height 36 cm, width 35.5 cm, depth 3.5 cm.
This New Kingdom tablet depicts royal piety to the sun god, Aten. It is from Pharaoh Akhenaten’s reign and shows Akhenaten and his wife Nefertiti with two of their daughters. It is a rare depiction of affection between the Pharaoh and his family.
During his reign, Akhenaten imposed many changes on the normally static Egyptian artistic tradition (see: Pharaoh Psammeticus II; Narmer Palette): the elongation of heads, hands and bodies, as the figures on this tablet display, was one such change.