ending

thus with the handing in of my project i officially post that this post will end all posts :)

Drafts

Ok, handed my first draft to Mr. Wright yesterday and talked it over today.

Need to re-write it b/c structurally unsound. I WILL get it done soon so it can be further polished and stuff if it kills me :)

excuses

i haven't put my synopsis up yet because miss Vandermolen took my usb for an art progress mark :) soz bro

Quade Cooper

OMG QUADE COOPER IS CHANGING TO BALLET!!!!!

*;)*

check out this article:

http://theballboys.com.au/2011/07/08/super-rugby-final-quade-cooper’s-dancing-feet-make-him-target-of-australian-ballet-company/

Afrocentrism & Sexualities

Akhenaten, History Fantasy and Ancient Egypt

Dominic Montserrat

Dominic Montserrat as a Historian>Akhenaten in the mirror: p1-7, 10-11

· “This book is the first attempt to look at them [Akhenaten-themed theologies, painting, novels etc] and try and understand why they chose Akhenaten. I want to know what interests are served, at particular historical moments, by summoning up the ghost of a dead Egyptian king. These representations of him are not structured by Akhenaten’s own history but by struggles for legitimation and authority in the present. Such multiple and contradictory redrawing of characters from ancient history... are always more concerned with the importance of the issue discussed through them rather than their historicity.”

· “This book is about the historical Akhenaten only in a peripheral way. It is not a biography of him but a metabiography- a look at the process of biographical representation”

· “I am not really interested in Akhenaten himself, but in why other people are interested in him and find his story relevant and inspirational when he has been dead for three and a half thousand years”

· “But Akhenaten does not belong ex[c]lusively to elite culture, and so he is a marvellously rich resource for allowing a range of other voices to be heard, in spite of voices which would consign them insignificant. Most books on aspects of Egyptology give little space to these ‘fringe’ voices, but here I engage with them often.”

· “Also, I believe that it is very important for the professional community to listen to non-specialists”

· “All presenters of Akhenaten, scholarly or otherwise, have distinct personal, cultural and generic biases that shape their perceptions.”

· “In this book I spend a lot of time examining what might be called the paratextual conditions of the mythic Akhenaten- the other circumstances which help to produce specific views of him and assist in his mythologisation.”

· “It is hard to find a common denominator to these myths because they are so Protean, their different guises shifting to suit the needs of particular audiences, genres and interpreters. However, one thing which underpins many of them is the desire to find an antecedent for oneself or one’s beliefs in ancient Egypt.”

· “Since Plato, historians, politicians and theologians have looked to ancient Egypt to find justification, legitimation or authentication.”

· “Some of us are engaged in deconstruction, destabilisation, demythologisation and deideologisation of western-produced knowledge of the past. Part of this process is to create alternative points of reference and alternative discourses which reconfigure received wisdom. In other words, demoting cultural heroes and looking at them from unorthodox points of view is fashionable. So my postmodern version of Akhenaten is just as much of its time... My own prejudices, and something of my own history, will become clear from the parts of the Akhenaten myth I have chosen to survey here. Any examination of a mythologised historical character like Akhenaten inevitably ends up by adding something more to the myth, and this book is no exception.”

· “He is a sign rather than a person”

· “In that respect Akhenaten has become a sign almost entirely through the medium of archaeology”

· “The classical historians do not mention him explicitly, and so he was never a part of western cultural history ”

· “Akhenaten emerged unencumbered by cultural baggage and ready to be reborn” (1-7)

o “By examining the multiple Akhenatens of this book, I intended to do three things. I wanted first to point out the extent to which the west has internalised ancient Egypt and made it its own. The second was to enable everybody who is interested to look at Akhenaten with a little more neutrality. Academics need to remember that the histories of Akhenaten they write are just as self-revealing as those by people who have had little to do with conventional history... we acknowledge our own input rather than hiding behind the mask of objectivity. Third, it seems to me that this multiplicity of Akhenatens is telling the professional community that its role is changing. Conventional historians of Egypt present a view of an apolitical past which is over and done with, but Akhenaten’s amazing life in the western imagination shows this is anything but the case. He is not static and conservative, but political and dynamic. Different interest groups compete for the right to present him” (then goes on about technology and credibility of prof and non-prof rub shoulders and difference is b/c indistinguishable) 10-11

Akhenaten in the Mirror (chapter 1)

· (talks about chapter 5; Afrocentrism)

· “Looking at versions of Akhenaten which are constructed to challenge the status quo”

· “Paradoxically, these are the most extreme and imaginative readings of Akhenaten, while at the same time the most conservative”

· Makes point that the Afrocentric Akhenaten and the mystic Akhenaten of alternate religions overlap (sometimes).

· His definition: “a political and cultural movement which seeks to reclaim the origins of world civilisations in black Africa, and Egypt plays a central part in its discourse”

· Historians across the globe criticise it, especially its relation (“appropriation”) to Egypt, “based on old fashioned ideas about race, and actually dances to a western tune while claiming to be a radical revision of history”

o Quote (8, Gilroy, 1993: 188>> ‘The Black Atlantic: Modernity and a Double Consciousness’, London: Verso >p205)

§ “May be useful in developing communal discipline and self-worth and even in galvanising black communities to resist the encroachments of crack cocaine, but... its European, Cartesian outlines remains visible beneath a new lick of Kemetic [Egyptian] paint”

· Comment by Montserrat: “Yet the black people I met who passionately believed in a black Akhenaten were not concerned with the niceties of Afrocentrism’s status as a basis for writing cultural history: they were involved with much more immediate struggles”

· Comment by Montserrat: “I was struck by the racist assumptions that seemed to underlie some of these readings of Akhenaten. Many of these are indebted to various forms of Theosophy, whose potential for appropriation by the extreme rights has often been noted”

All from p 9. ^^^^^^^^^

· P10; Akhenaten’s sexualities

· “On manifestation is the gay Akhenaten, part of the quest for gay identity in the past that has been so important in some quarters over the last twenty years or so.”

· “Another is the polymorphously perverse Akhenaten: heterosexual monogamist no more, this Akhenaten has sex with his male lovers, mother, son-in-law and various daughters as well as his wives and concubines”

· “Gay versions are misogynistic in that they in that they write the prominent women of Akhenaten’s family out of the plot”

5- Race and Religion

· Begins with comments from the visitors’ book of an exhibition of Amarna Art in the Brooklyn Museum, quoted in Wedge 1977: 56-7, 144 (Nefertiti Graffiti: Comments on ...)

o “I think you have a good collection. But I was very disappointed about Akhenaten being grotesque. Only a white would say he was ugly”

o “Your exhibition seems to deny Akhenaten and Nefertiti were Black Africans- which they were. I am sure you did not ask any black historian to contribute.”

· Montserrat talks about autumn 1973 exhibition held in Brooklyn Museum.

· “Many African Americans who wrote comments thought that too little attention had been paid to the African origins of Akhenaten and Nefertiti, and that the labelling and presentation of exhibits was racist.”

· Then talks about what chapter deals with;

o “This chapter examines the ways in which Akhenaten is used by two contemporary movements”

o Talks about need to make clear distinctions b/w Afro & alternate re.

· Afrocentrism meaning (again)

o “Afrocentrists I take to mean those who aim, among other things, to reinstate the blackness of the ancient Egyptians in an African context after centuries of white historians presenting them as proto-Europeans. Underlying this aim is the belief that political liberation and the end of exploitation can never be achieved without people of African descent re-establishing ancestral ties to their continent of origin”

· Islam: “he comes up frequently in the rhetoric of the Nation of Islam, which is both a religious and political movement.”

· Afro use “The same (often outdated) books as sources. Both favour as authorities the work of Breasted, and especially the numerous books on hieroglyphs and Egyptian religion by E. A. Wallis Budge...Budge has gone from being academically respectable in his day to a resource largely of interest to the fringe... Budge has been criticised as a servant of Eurocentrist scholarship; he certainly said some things about Akhenaten that would be now regarded as racist and, as we have seen, the same may be true of Breasted. His diffusionist beliefs about the development of culture... have a value to Afrocentrists who believe that the black Egyptian contribution to civilisation has been stolen by whites.”

· “Furthermore, exponents of alternative Akhenatens use very similar strategies to argue against conventional Egyptology. Many of them believe that there is an academic conspiracy which denies the true extent of Egyptian spiritual or cultural achievement, and deliberately falsifies the evidence by mistranslating hieroglyphs, for instance (note: Baines, 1990, 1-5; Roth, 1998; Asante, 1992, 57-9). Alternate religionists and Afrocentrists can, and do, present themselves as being far ahead of the academic community, having new ideas, new perspectives on perceived wisdom, and new evidence.”

· THEN goes onto sub-chapter on Black Pharaohs.

· Talks about Mural, Central Reading Youth Provision Black History Mural> paid for by private benefactors.

· Akhenaten depicted in it with Mohammad, Nefertiti also depicted as black.

· Akhenaten is suggested (according to Montserrat) to be the precursor of Mohammad. Fist rep of ‘black’ political and religious leaders.

· Fact that benefactors contributed (originally commissioned by Reading Borough Council), reflects and official version of history similar to a war memorial; emotive, but not necessarily historically coherent collection of symbols, images and texts.

· “Mural links Akhenaten with the prophet Mohammad as founder of Islam”

· “My intention is to look at how and why he has achieved this favoured status, rather than to comment on the historiographical questions raised by the relationship of ancient Egypt with modern Afrocentrism”

· Early as 1840’s Egypt claimed black scholars and educators; “one of whose aims was to enable oppressed black people to regain their lost heritage and achieve greatness once again.”

· Pan-African pioneer, Edward Wilmot Blyden, afro=intellectual foundations. Advocated Liberia =homeland for freed slaves, est link b/w Egyptians and modern day black people.

o Wrote: “The Negro in Ancient History”

o Argue against Eurocentric view of history.

· Pauline Hopkins, “Of One Blood, the Hidden Face”> published Coloured American Magazine

· Colossi of Karnak, negative judgements of Akhenaten’s appearance could be seen as a racist conspiracy by white historians to deny and degrade the blackness of the Egyptians.

· Wooden head of (supposed) Tiye from Medint el-Gurob, big.

· “In Afrocentric books, sculptures of Akhenaten, his mother and daughters are juxtaposed with photographs of contemporary Africans or people African decent to illustrate the facial similarities between them” (youtube video)

· Afro. Ideas are enhanced by the “political prominence of the royal women during Akhenaten’s reign can be presented as evidence for the theory of an ancient African matriarchy in which power is inherited through the female line. This theory was popularised by... Cheikh Anta Diop”

· Religious reforms appeals to Black Muslim groups, and Muslims in general.

· Some “black non-Muslims argue that black Moses was taught by Akhenaten and that monotheism is an ancient African concept”

· Akhenaten’s self-liberation from an oppressive tradition (the Amun priesthood) makes him an attractive and powerful symbol for African American political and religious figures. M. Compares Akhenaten’s name change to Elijah Muhammad (founder of the Nation of Islam) changed his ‘slave name’ after b/c Muslim & radical

· Montserrat acclaims Akhenaten’s involvement in Afrocentrism begins with Elijah Muhammad’s teacher, W.D. Fard, in Detroit approximately 1930.

o “The many impoverished black migrants from the South living in Detroit during the Depression provided a ready audience”

· Breasted, didn’t believe Akhenaten was black, rather white people were responsible for carrying civilisation. Rather racist reasons. “The Conquest of Civilisation”

o Apparently once it was thought that Ak was black, became possible to ignore his racism and adopt his heroic political leader struck chord in Fard’s supporters.

o Ak= reborn in Detroit slums. I suppose b/c he was a figure who ‘proved’ that black people could have and did have, political power. A nice thought, like Akhenaten as an image to disabled children, historically incorrect and should never be constituted as real. Just like Santa for children.

· “At roughly the same time, but in a very different social and cultural milieu, Akhenaten and his family underwent another rebirth among African Americans. This was during the ”Harlem renaissance, the great flowing of African American artistic achievement cantered around Harlem in NY”

· W.E.B. Du Bois (1869-1963): Leader of National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People, argued for past and present achievements of black people.

· ‘THE CRISIS’ 1920’s HIS magazine used Amarna-derived graphics. By Black artist Aaron Douglas, i.e. portrait of Tut’s funerary mask appears September 1926 (vol 32, no 5), same year black theatre group’s poster uses Amarna elements> Cited: A.H. Kirschke 1995, ‘Art, Race and the Harlem Renaissance’, plates 19 &21

· Du Bios political works, “follows the standard line that Amarna was the apogee of Ancient Egypt. Universal humanitarianism, pacifism and domestic affection were ‘the ideal of life’ there, but originated and ruled over by a black pharaoh”

· Cited Gardener Wilkinson, Amarna’s initial excavator, that the features of Amenhotep III seemed negroid, quoted friend Anna Melissa Graves’ observation of Akhenaten

o “Though less Negroid than his mother was more of the mulatto type than his father, and the portrait busts of his daughters show them all to be beautiful quadroons, though perhaps octoroons. And this Mulatto Pharaoh- Akhnaton- was not the most interesting Pharaoh in all the long lives of the many dynasties; but he was, in many ways, one of the most remarkable human beings who ever lived.”

o ‘Benvenuto Cellini Had No Prejudice against Bronze: Letters from West Africans’ (1943) illustrated W Amarna heads opposing photos of African Americans. (Montserrat says)> Invited African Americans to personally identify with Akhenaten, and probs those of mixed race b/c daughters

· Recent scholarship = sceptical about originality/ motivations (cult existed b/c Amenhotep III set up, probs trying to get power from Amun/ Re priesthood)> but doesn’t matter to Afrocentrist teachers/educators

· Bu Bios work is reprinted for black studies and course materials for teachers. Modern Euro-American culture and values towards acknowledging lives & achievements of black people, reorienting students of African American descent to their continent of origin= feelings of self worth and multiculturalism awareness and humanistic values. CITED: Van Deburg 1997: 257-88> “Modern Black Nationalism from Marcus Garvey to Louis Farrakham”

· Modern book proposing model for Afrocentrist curriculum, C. Crawford’s “Recasting Egypt ion the African Context” (1996)

o Ak = patron saint

· “Other educational projects are placed under Akhenaten’s symbolic protection in the same way. An Amarna relief of him sacrificing appears on the cover of a teachers’ pack produced in 1992 by the Equality Issues in the Humanities Project under the auspices of the Manchester City Council Education Department. The pack is intended to help the teaching of Ancient Egypt at Key Stage 2 (7-11-year-olds) in a non-Eurocentric way, based in part on American models.”

o Akhenaten and Nef are big.

o “Students are encouraged to think about Nefertiti as an African woman of intelligence and political influence, rather than as a glamorous beauty queen” (CITED: “I am indebted to Lance Lewis for sending me a copy of this pack, which I would never have seen otherwise”)> agree with everything except the African bit.

· Other A educational materials tend to show AKI’s reign as the pinnacle of Egypt’s achievements (but the scholarly world doesn’t... I wonder why!), should be followed.

o Maulana Karenga 1960’s

o NOW? Chair of the Department of Black Studies at California State University at Long Beach

o Ideas=widely adopted

o Ideas of his appropriate the idea of MAAT, but this possibly isn’t so crazy? It is also. Technically, part of other religions beliefs.

o UNTIL you get to this bit: Molefi Kete Asante MAAT= ‘the one cosmic generator that gave meaning to life’ (CITED: 1992 M.K. Asante, “Afrocentricity” N. J. Trenton)

· “The black radical traditions I have surveyed here involve a variety of concerns and the approaches which I have partly glossed over. Some black radicals are committed to making demands on the establishment in the present, others more interested in cultural recognition and pride; some have links to secular white or interracial traditions (particularly various forms of socialism), while others are more separatist and religious. Yet what strikes me is the way that Akhenaten appears in these very different political traditions in much the same ways.”

7- Sexualities

· YEAH, i still have to do this, but it wont take very long :)

Akhenaten statue Stolen> Dr el-Awady

"The most important of the missing objects is a limestone statue of the Pharaoh Akhenaten standing and holding an offering table. Akhenaten is the so-called heretic king who tried to introduce monotheism to ancient Egypt."

"It's the most important one from an artistic point of view," said museum director Tarek el-Awady.

"The position of the king is unique and it's a beautiful piece of art."

"During Akhenaten's so-called Amarna period, named after his capital, artists experimented with new styles."

Sad they are stole, but good quotes for me if I need them :)

Read more: http://www.news.com.au/world/king-tutankhamun-statue-stolen-from-egypt-museum/story-e6frfkyi-1226005480398#ixzz1RTxaqdUY"

Excuse my rant

Despite the theories that he was black, there was always a distinction in art between the Egyptians and their Nubian neighbours, colour wise (saw this at the museum on one of the artefacts).

The Nubian’s were always painted black-black, and as Akhenaten changed the colour skin of men and women to a much lighter shade (as seen when there are paintings), and the bust of Nefertiti distinctly conveys that she wasn’t Negroid, it is historically incorrect to assume that they were.

It then becomes worse if one bases these theories (as do the pathological theories) on the early art forms and to ignore the later works of Thutmose; it makes a bad historian.

Furthermore, Egyptian art since its early stages represented more than just figures as European art does, making it impossible the judge that the (the early works especially, as they seem to hold the most religious meaning) art reflects race or physical heath.

Akhenaten is an easy ‘target’ though, he is (to quote Breasted) the only ‘individual’ in Ancient Egypt, the only pharaoh who dared to change the society after thousands of years.

Thus it is easy for people to put incorrect theories on him, especially seeing as there is no definitive answer to Amarna Art.

Tutankhamen exhi. notes

The Tutankhamen exhibition was a help, not hugely, but enough :)

To advertise it around the museum they had pictures of one of the (early i assume) Amarna carved reliefs, understandably why, as they provide great visual interest.

ANYWAY here are some of the notes i took, after almost not being able to because I was using a pen...

· Sculptures head of a Princess from Amarna

o “The unusual elongation of the skull, which appears in other Amarna figures, may have reflected religious ideology. Possibly a familial trait, this feature also occurs in the mummy of Tutankhamen, who may have

been the half brother”

And as the children of Nefertiti they are presumably not inbred like their half brother, and Akhenaten's mummy didn't show any signs of deformities

either, perhaps it is a result of their environment? Is it possible that their skulls are so 'odd' because of the 'pillows' they slept on? If they slept on them with their lower neck would the skull change and 'hang', and so creating a very curved and elongated skull??? Just a thought i really need your advice for sir or anyone else. These pictures may help

· Face from a statue of Nefertiti (brown quartzite)

o “she appears here with naturalistic features, not (with the) exaggeration of earlier statues”

Even my sister agreed that she didn't look African American, and in another picture I showed her she said she looked slightly European, largely b/c of her delicate features

· Limestone Sculptures practice model in sunk relief (double sided)

o “A depiction of Queen Nefertiti appears on one side of this trial piece and a kneeling courtier on the other... the full lip and long neck are characterisations of the Amarna period”

Shows the struggles of the artist Bek to grasp new style, which after the re-discovery of Amarna effects MANY interpretations.

· Funerary figure of AKI, osirian: interetsing, but i think b/c of the growth in unpopularity, Akhenaten relinquished the existence of only one God.

· “carved and painted figures become less angular, exhibiting a new realism”

There was a head of the colossi there also, and I can say that the positioning DOES affect how one sees the statues, even my sister agreed!! And it helped that they positioned it the right way. Though, it still looked kinda weird.

Barry Kemp Interview

September 27, 2006.

Excavating Amarna

"Does the increased focus on new art styles during the Amarna period and the discovery of sculptors' workshops at the site suggest there were more artisans here or a larger part of the city was dedicated to art production than at other capitals? Or could this simply reflect the fact that the archaeological record at other cities was more disturbed by later building over the centuries or may still lie beneath modern buildings?

Again, comparison with other places is impossible. The evidence is not there. Akhenaten inherited the sculptors of his father's reign who were able to work on a large scale to a remarkably high level of sensitivity in hard stones. He benefited from this. On the other hand, it is clear that he had an insufficient number of skilled relief artists. The standard of carving on wall blocks from Amarna varies greatly, some of the work being of poor quality. The number of locatable sculptor's workshops at Amarna is not particularly large. They form part of a broad pattern of evidence to suggest that the whole city was one loosely organized workshop serving the court. It is hard to think that other major cities (and there would have been only a few at any one time) did not have this character. But only more archaeology at other places will help to answer the question.

Did Akhenaten's actions--changing the religion, promoting new artistic style, and moving the capital--affect the everyday lives of Egyptians?

The lives of the people of Amarna were dramatically changed by the move to a new location, probably not a convenient or inviting one. It was a bleak strip of desert they had to colonize. The impact that his religion had upon them is one of the Project's research themes. At one end lie the Aten temples and their strange obsession with offering-tables. Are they a sign that a greater degree of public benefit was in Akhenaten's mind? The idea is quite attractive but hard to prove, the evidence in part being the archaeological remains of the offering-cult. At the other end is the fact that Amarna is richer in evidence for domestic religious cults and beliefs than other settlement sites of the period (Ramesside Deir el-Medina excepted) and for the most part they were not centered on Akhenaten's ideas."

http://www.archaeology.org/online/interviews/kemp.html

(where I found interview)

Funny thing

According to Montserrat, many of the 'gay' sources on Akhenaten are VERY misogynistic, they concentrate So much on the relationship between Smenkhrae (who during the time they were written was believed to be a man) that they almost wrote Nefertiti and the other Royal women of Amarna out of the history.

BTW the reason I haven't blogged properly in ages is because i'm doing a VERY long analysis of Montserrat's book in regards to the Afrocentric and Sexuality theories.

Funny thing to, you know that youtube video where the faces of Obama and his family are compared to those of Akhenaten's family is actually very typical of what Afrocentrics do. They take images of famous black people and compare them to the faces of Akhenaten and family to illustrate the African origins of the family.

ALSO one thing i hadn't realised is the appeal of Akhenaten to black Muslims!!!

I reckon there would have been no stupid or weird theories if the colossi hasn't been discovered before the artworks of the 'later' period of Amarna; the work of Thutmose, more realistically looking.

note to self: look at artwork and what effects they have on conclusions

Just a quick thing about this.

There was the lime stone trial piece with the heads of two rules , excavated 1933

>>>and when it was found people automatically lept to the conclusion that it was Akhenaten and his son who was Smenkare (atm i really don't care what its spelt like). Rather than looking at it for a purpose RATHER THAN TO EXPLAIN THE GAPS IN HISTORY.

JUST QUICKLY

OH and i need to make the point in there somewhere that it wasn't unusual for Pharaoh's to depict themselves in a particular way, like a rhetoric kinda thing, to make specific points

e.g. Hatsheput's and beards.

Sorry Gay Robins

The art and Architecture of Ancient Egypt

William Stevenson Smith (revised edition by William Kelly Simpson)

"The craftsman who cut the Karnak blocks were experimenting with sunk relief much as the men in the Theban tomb of Parennefer had tried both raised and relief cut in a thick plaster coating and sunk relief in the poor rock surface...This prevalent use of sunk relief, where all figures were set back from the surface of the wall, was cheaper in labour than the Old Kingdom method"

Thus more experimentation confirming that the style was VERY different to those past and future.

areas i will attack in my essay

• Utopian ideas of Amarna art (the original influences).

• Medical (pathology): influence of the colossi on history. Here i think would be a good place to talk about ancient perspectives and compare this to it and colossi.

• Afrocentrism: Dominic Montserrat's History, Fantasy and Ancient Egypt.

• Religious: focus on the Shu & Tefnut theory and others i can find.

• Artistic perspective: Gay Robins, how affects visual, changes in OUR perceptions of art through ages and how ties in with present theories i.e. technological evolution has meant that art no longer has to appear 'REAL', in our society the concept behind an artwork is increasingly becoming the main focus. ALSO when Picasso went to Africa there wasn't the desire to portray images as the appeared in life, hence the development of the cubism thing. I put this in b/c in many cultures (par Greek and Roman) there wasn't the desire to show life as it really was, it was more a stylistic rep, which is what it had been (depending on your opinion) until Amarna. I draw this conclusion b/c one cannot escape from the fact that especially as Amarna developed it seemed increasingly realistic; in William Stevenson Smith's book afore mentioned, there are two paster mask heads (p 104) look (in my opinion) kinda real, THEY HAVE WRINKLES. As MR. Wright has just pointed out, this is because of the experimental medium they were using; "the suggestion that they were casts taken to give more permanent form to exceptionally realistic sculptor's studies in clay deserves serious consideration... The wrinkles round the eyes and on the forehead of the old woman [324] and on the brow of the extraordinary old man [323] are unprecedented in earlier sculpture" (William Stevenson Smith, Art and Architecture of Ancient Egypt)>> THIS IS BIG, sorry Gay.

• Rhetoric?

• Multiplicity of approaches. That this is more complex than it appears, Lise Manniche makes this point in her book

This is all so far, i want to talk about the crowns in there somewhere BUT I will need to take a re-look at that book, look for a greater number of historians and analyse them for their background (I will point out that in Montserrat's book there is a BIG discussion of historians). I will also need to brush up on my art history knowledge.

If i remember anything when i get home I will blog it, probs will be later (saturday b/c of carnival) :)

Amarna's Article

In an article from the National Geographic Website, "Pharaohs of the Sun" by Rick Gore, the bust of Nefertiti is mentioned, in relation to the debate of whether she actually looked like this or not.

It is interesting to note that Gore comments "But Nefertiti seldom looks the same in any of the numerous portraits of her". Gore also make specific reference to a statue Rolf Krauss (curator) calls the "tired Nefertiti", which he explains is an elderly statue of her in which, her face appears lined and has apparent saggy breasts. Due to the unlikely fact that Nefertiti would have aged this amount during her husbands sort reign.

Therefore, it is doubtful realism is a technique here, especially if theories that this bust acted as a model for other artists. Though it could also be argued that this change to a more realistic art style would have produced works that showed a slow grasp; an argument I used also to account for the colossi.

The Gore also suggests the artistic extremism is due to his attempts "to break down more than a thousand years of artistic tradition, so he instructed his artists to portray the world as it really was". Which doesn't seem like a bad theory, as it is reasonable to assume that the majority of people even in current society find realism a more aesthetic. Thus this would have made the new religion more appealing to the larger society. This would account for the changing art style in sculpture.

As James Allen comments, "Akhenaten probably didn't have the greatest physique by American standards... He had an easy life in the palace". Thus again confirming that Akhenaten wasn't physically deformed, despite my personal opinion that it is a stupid conclusion to make, which ignores other works of the same and second period (there are two distinctive periods that coincide with the change of "head artist" and may account for some of the misconceptions of the art period).

Art in Egypt seems to have been a way for many rulers to try and change their image, Hatshepsut is known for in some sculptures having a beard on to display her power as pharaoh.

But this could be me looking at the Egyptian society and placing my views on it, but i shall continue anyway, if for the criticism :)

The article also talks about the change from rigid form to one that was more fluid and informal; thus putting the Pharaoh in more intimate situations with his family and wife. This (sorry to dispute with Gay Robins after my rant before) is what makes the art different and revolutionary, no other pharaohs were depicted in this venerable situation in the New Kingdom.

Amenhotep III, it is agreed began the 'rebellion', as Akhenaten's father he undoubtedly inspired his son. It isn't completely known what caused the 'rebellion', but it could be the political friction with the priests of Amun who's power almost surpassed that of the Pharaoh's. He began building monuments to Aten, including a funerary temple across the Nile from Thebes WHICH featured two 65 ft (20m) 710 tonne statues. Known as the Colossi of Memnon. "Some scholars argue that Akhenaten and his father ruled together for several years".

Just a little point

Amarna itself was never 'lost' as such, Romans visited the site as did those accompanying Napoleon's expedition.

Viewpoint effecting artworks> Colossi

I'd just like to say my thoughts on this issue were correct (or according to my bias they are)!!!!!

Theres this thing in art called the "conceptual framework" that art students (and one would hope art historians) consider when examining an artwork.

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It is a tool which shows the relationships between artworks, their contexts, audiences and the artists.

From this i began to think of one of the David statues and how it is said that if u position yourself correctly the statue moves; or something like that. But the point is with statues the intentions (artistic practice) are effected by and audience or context an artist creates for.

Anyway, as the colossi are VERY big (though not as big as others colossi-like statues from the Osirian festival, but there something like 4m) and so any GOOD artist who needs their statue to be seen a particular way, and KNOWS that the height of a statue, and the point of the audience/observer will effect it. Thus, they may change the proportions to suit this view point, which may lead to the exaggeration of proportions as are seen with the colossi. This achieves a really weird looking statue if seen in profile , but more normal if seen from a distance.

Nicholas Reeves observed this:

"when seen from below the peculiar distortion of the king's face is far less apparent, the impression is one of unadulterated power"> 2001, "Akhenaten. Egypt's False Prophet"

Lise Manniche in "The Akhenaten Colossi of Karnak" then explains that the colossi were "never meant to be seen face to face... the artists allowed for this, for example in the angle of the eyeball and the exaggerated size of the upper lip".

I also want to mention that I am 'hypothesising' that the eyeballs were looking down (as was noticed by Desroches Noblecourt in 1972) in order to stare at the audience, to establish their power and confront the audience with the new religion. NOT medical reasons!!!

Which then, I suppose could justify opinions about the colossi as a large piece of rhetoric (as is mentioned previously in my blog), but it doesn't seem as likely as the proportions theory does.

A link to a crazy woman

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rj4ffn1e0xk

Amarna Art+ me getting my thoughts straight on Gay Robins and so wont sound to intelligent

In Breasted's book he calls Akhenaten the first 'individual' of ancient times. It's funny because he uses italics, its just funny ok.

I disagree with Gay Robins and her perception that Amarna art isn't very revolutionary in her book 'Proportion and Style in Ancient Egypt'. Yes there hasn't been MUCH that has changed about the construction and method the art was made in, but the artists at this time WERE experimenting! They developed a new style of carved reliefs, they made the King seem human and not the military driven man that other Pharaoh's were portrayed as. In the tomb of Amarna he and his family are shown GRIEVING in a position of weakness, which wasn't 'done' in previous reigns, as Pharaohs were warriors and so their weakness wasn't to be evident to their people or their enemies. Also, dead bodies were never shown in a tomb, thus changing the traditional conventions of Egyptian art.

Like Da Vinci's Mona Lisa, the artists of Amarna seem to have changed the traditional stances of their subjects. They are no longer confined to the rigid and limited stances and sittings, as seen in MANY of the wall reliefs in which the royal family play with their children, or SMOOTH CURVES convey the family leaning over in (as much as it is improper to label them) realistic.

The artists also experimented more than they had, refining the wall carving reliefs found in much of Amarna art. They also added toes and fingers and changed the skin colours of male and females; an innovation, if small, but an innovation none the less.

Also, in regards to the grid systems, they weren't used in the private tombs AND they were changed. besides this, the fact that the art changes from rigid stances to smooth movements is an innovation in itself.

Besides, Akhenaten had a short reign in which the royal artists were trained in a specific tradition, which encompassed grid systems. Surely it would be stupid to suddenly prohibit the artists from using it, changing artistic styles takes TIME something Akhenaten didn't have alot of. If one were to look at the Bek's limestone 'drawing' of Akhenaten you see how much he struggled in comprehending the new style. If one were to look a year sevens drawings in comparison to a year twelves you see the gradual understanding of drawing what you see: which I will say is mighty hard, one has to overcome their own conceptions of space and proportions, and then continually draw what you see. It is all too easy to draw without looking at the image or person and draw a 'characteristic' sketch, as opposed to a realistic one.

Though, i do agree the hype of Amarna is large, possibly even too much. But it IS the most distinct period of all of Egyptian history un-effected (relatively) by foreign influences or ruling. The rave of Tutankhamun though does supersede that of Amarna. I'm sure by now i've contradicted myself, but look at the title.

I was going to add something, but i forgot, oh well :)

Amarna art notes :) from a dvd set i have

Akhenaten

· Heretic????

· DID excommunicate the Priesthood of Re J_

· KV55: no inscriptions. No scenes. Cut for something. 197> Davis> strange things, gold plated wood. Damaged. 4 Canopic jars. Scene of Aki W name of Tye. Skeleton.

· Man: beautiful sarcophagus: skeleton

· NOTE: in video emphasises the MYSTERIOS NATURE: “but this coffin... inside it... a skeleton... a mysterious one”> Zahi Hawass (Director, Supreme Council of Antiquities)

· Wafah El Sediq (Director, Cairo Museum)

o “Prophet”

o Changed many things... 1^st...

o She says that Nefertiti was the actual ruler, and that Akhenaten was primarily involved with his religion. SO perhaps it is Nefertiti’s sed festival and SHE is primarily rep. In the statues OR they are represented together. ?????

§ “She was actually the one who was ruling”

§ “Akhenaten devoted himself for his religion, and the actual ruler was Nefertiti”

o “The revolution was... in everything. They have changed the language, the language became very simple because it was to be used also by the people. So they changed the classical language of Ancient Egypt to be a very simple language... The new Egyptian Language... at the same time they changed a lot in the art. The way of showing everything, it was more free.”

o “he considered himself the son of.. the god who created the world.. male and female in one, because he is part of this god he also... he is the same, he is male and female”

· Priesthood had greater power than pharaoh

· Janice Kamrin

o Archaeologist

o Karnak, columns: one of 5 names of Amunhotep 3> hacked away

o

· 5^th year go openly, against the Theban priesthood

· Changed name

· Religious changes effected all areas of Egyptian life

o Movie says that “The art was to be a clear message to the people, and the artists were to be it’s messengers.”

§ “the pharaoh invited them to abandon traditional limits and give free reign to their creativity and imagination”

· “Mahmoud Mabouk”

o Art historian

o (translation)“Artistic objects underwent change as well. Human characteristics and feelings were ever greater importance. But the proportions and artistic cannons were no longer similar to those of the past. Akhenaten gave the court sculptors Bek and Tutmose the job and responsibility of artistically changing the proportions, forms and shapes.”

o Tutmose set up a workshop in the area of Tell’ a Amarna, where plastic heads, rough drawings on limestone tablets and unusually proportioned busts of the King have been found. Some of these show the King with a very prominent chin, and others with a much shorter chin.

o “At this point we also see a change in the temples and fresco paintings, and in art in general. Styles become more human, with more refined features. Note the delicacy on the King’s fingers as he touches the sun’s rays during worship. We can almost see the emotions pass through his lips and body as he closes his eyes against the sun’s strong rays. This is what distinguishes Amarna art.”

o “In order to portray the religious concepts contained in Akhenaten’s hymn which declared ‘you are the mother and the father of everything created, and you in your compassion are mother or father’ the answer tends to modify the physical appearance of the statue to represent the sovereign as both maternal and paternal”

o “There was some debate about why these sovereigns, queens and daughter’s heads are portrayed as they are, and although some put it down to physical deformity or illness that probably effected the royal family it was actually part of a whole new art form.”

o “Here we see Akhenaten in front of his deceased daughters body, sad as any father would be. We see the girl’s body... her family crying, pulling at their hair as a sign of great suffering endured for this tragic death. We see Akhenaten holding Nefertiti’s wrist in an attempt to comfort her in the loss of her child. These details are a true revolution in Amarna art”

o “When you go into the Royal tomb at Amarna, there’s not a hint of that (AMDUAT) all you have are images of the sunlight, it’s a daytime... there’s nothing on the walls but the Aten and the King and Queen. ”

· “Art was to reflect the breakaway from the traditions of Egypt”

· The heads are also portrayed in an unusual way

o Large head: represent childhood, purity?

· For the first time the pharaoh was depicted in the intimacy of family life. Most that show are in tomb.!!

· No longer supreme god, but human being. Suffering from d. Death.

· Image from day to day life is fixed in stone, as do the other images on the walls of the tombs.

· Egyptians put tombs to west where the sun sets, North banks of Niles. Amarna tombs are dug out of the mountain to east. TOMB IS MASSIVE!

· Aki tomb compared to Valley of Kings is VERY different.

o NK walls painted W scenes from the book of the dead “Amduat”

o Journey and trials overcome in death.

o Aki sarcophagus guarded by figures if Nefertiti in protective embrace

· Gave orders for Eye’s burial:

· Vizier live in Memphis, bury at SACRA???

o 2007 excavations confirm

o Seal bearer

o Bar reliefs, monkeys eating fruit

· Barry Kemp J

o Archaeologist, director of the Amarna project

o “Whilst Akhenaten was at Amarna his second daughter _______ died. (In annex to main royal tomb) this is a scene of the family grieving over her... In front of her are arranged her family, here is Akhenaten himself.... behind Queen Nefertiti, and beyond three of her sisters; and they are shown in an attitude of extreme grief, they’re in despair. They’re raising their hands in a gesture of mourning and despair, and in a royal tomb this is a unique example of the expression of deep personal feeling. The scene does tell one or more other things about the Amarna period, what happened. Here is the name of Akhenaten.”

o (NOT HIM)“ a dead body had never before been depicted and nor had a Pharaoh in a moment of weakness”

· Amarna letters= know foreign relations. Know that let political tasks slid with concentration on religion.

o 1880’s

o Temples = military, correpsondance = complicated political game (not that effective!)

o Hatti> Hittites

o Ak. B/c weak> require intervention of Queen tye> W arrived Neffertiti disappear> replaced by eldest daughter CHANGE NAME?. 12^th year husband

o Nefertiti Nefu Nefru Aten

o Same time = NEW KING appears ruling beside Akhenaten!!!

o Convincing evidence new king= female! And believe Nefertiti

o 3 names recorded in this way

o 1 Aki (not commonist)

o 2 Ankkeprerura (Smenkarae- Nef or a brother) and Nebkeprerura (MOST COMMON) (TUT) > after Ak two corenations

o Nefertiti, unsure where buried: 2 anonomas female mummies of Amenhotep II

On this dvd set J

* just a few things i would like to point out

> Elder Lady is Queen Tyie

> The younger Lady is Akhenaten's sister, and mother of Tutankhamun