NEW KINGDOM, 18TH DYNASTY, REIGN OF AKHENATEN, CIRCA 1352-1336 B.C.

R. Hanke (op. cit.) describes this talatat block as a “well-preserved relief of great artistic quality” in his study of Amarna reliefs from Hermopolis. It depicts a deeply bowing youthful courtier wearing the short layered “Nubian wig” favored by both men and women at Amarna. He wears a sheer garment on his upper body, part of which hangs in the background, and a kilt that is tied at his waist. The face is sensitively rendered in the idealizing Amarna style, and the body shows signs of softness indicating his wellbeing and status. His right arm is extended forward to present an object, and he is most likely taking part in a festival presentation to the royal family, based on a parallel formerly in the Norbert Schimmel collection depicting a row of three older courtiers in similar dress holding forked stalks or sticks in their right hands (see C. Aldred, Akhenaten and Nefertiti, no. 75). Originally occupying the height of two standardized talatat blocks, the considerable size of this figure and the large area of empty space behind him indicates the relative importance of this anonymous member of court, as well as the monumental scale of the temple scene to which it once belonged. No precise parallels to this pose are shown in private tombs at Amarna, but some indication of the immense size of the original wall may be deduced from scenes of Akhenaten rewarding officials at his Window of Appearances (see fig. 38 in Aldred, op. cit.)