Akhenaton and family portrait


I came today upon a wonderful art work of Arden. The painting depicts the family of the infamous Egyptian king Akhenaton consisting of him, his wife and 6 daughters. Clearly the artist has depended on the two dimensional ancient illustrations for the 18th Dynasty family whose life details are still in many ways mysterious. 
Akhenaton, Nefertiti and their children in the royal terrace. Note that children were often represented naked  with head shaved and a side lock of hair

Yet a couple of facts are confirmed about king Akhenaton and his mistress. Being crowned under the name Amenhotep IV, the young king soon changed his name to Akhenaton, meaning the ,,,of Aton. The later was a sun deity who, though well known in Egypt since the Old Kingdom, has never been a national god before Akenaton assigned him as the one and only god of the country.  In the fifth year of his reign, Pharaoh Akhenaten (1352–1336 BC) and his queen Nefertiti abandoned Thebes and built a new city, Akhetaten, Horizon of the Aten, in the area now known as Tell al-Amarna. It was there that the couple enjoyed an undisturbed  family life with their young daughters soon to be six in number. Akhetaton\s revolutionary religious  thought was soon to extend to art as well and for the first , and probably only, time in ancient Egypt, was the royal family represented while carrying out non ritual related daily life activities. Countless representations of the family were produced showing them in a casual manner.
An original relief of the royal family

The life of Akenaton and his consort were apparently short and we are unaware of their final destiny. While one of their daughters at least passed away during their lifetime, the others same to have outlived their parents and one even became the queen of Akhenaton’s successor, the notorious Tutankhamon. The eternal rest place of Akhenaton’s family remains unknown but their presence in ancient and contemporary art work is everlasting and timeless.
The superb painting of Arden is also available here as a print on many:objects http://www.cafepress.com/ardenellennixon/7162111

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