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Lot Essay
Akhenaten (Amenophis IV), along with his son Tutankhamun, is undoubtedly one of the most famous Egyptian pharaohs. Associated with a unique period of artistic production and beliefs, his radical programme of religious reform, aimed at abandoning the traditional polytheism in favour of a new monotheistic cult, centred on the worship of the living sun-disc Aten. However, shortly after his death traditional beliefs were quickly re-established and many representations of the heretic king were defaced.
Although more than two hundred shabtis of Akhenaten are known, all deriving from his royal tomb at Amarna, little consensus has been reached as to the nature of the concept of the afterlife envisioned by the heretic pharaoh. While shabti figures generally were intended to perform any duties of the deceased in the next life, the absence of the traditional ritual texts on the examples known from Amarna do little to clarify their ritual meaning. Some scholars have argued that the shabtis from Akhenaten’s tomb represent Osiris rather than the king, but others have doubted the role that Osiris would have played in the religion dominated by worship of the disk form of the sun, the Aten. This example, wearing a long or 'archaic' wig with both hands holding ankh-signs and carved from the indurated limestone typical of the Amarna region, reflects the artistic style of the late reign of Akhenaten, with sfumato eyes and soft, naturalistic features. Cf. G.T. Martin, The Royal Tomb at El-Amarna II: The Reliefs, Inscriptions and Architecture, Egypt Exploration Society, London, 1989, pl. 89, no. 520 for the type.
Although more than two hundred shabtis of Akhenaten are known, all deriving from his royal tomb at Amarna, little consensus has been reached as to the nature of the concept of the afterlife envisioned by the heretic pharaoh. While shabti figures generally were intended to perform any duties of the deceased in the next life, the absence of the traditional ritual texts on the examples known from Amarna do little to clarify their ritual meaning. Some scholars have argued that the shabtis from Akhenaten’s tomb represent Osiris rather than the king, but others have doubted the role that Osiris would have played in the religion dominated by worship of the disk form of the sun, the Aten. This example, wearing a long or 'archaic' wig with both hands holding ankh-signs and carved from the indurated limestone typical of the Amarna region, reflects the artistic style of the late reign of Akhenaten, with sfumato eyes and soft, naturalistic features. Cf. G.T. Martin, The Royal Tomb at El-Amarna II: The Reliefs, Inscriptions and Architecture, Egypt Exploration Society, London, 1989, pl. 89, no. 520 for the type.