Assess the impact of Akhenaten's reign on religion and art.

Essay by thevillageidiot August 2003

download word file, 8 pages 4.8

Downloaded 77 times

"Assess the impact of Akhenaten's reign on religion and art"

It can not be denied that Amenhotep IV, or Akhenaten as he is more widely known, had a very large and significant impact on Egyptian religion and art during his reign as pharaoh. The effects and impacts of his reign spread across many aspects of Egyptian life and ranged from art to religion and politics. In contrast to the many pharaohs that preceded and followed Akhenaten, he was a radical pharaoh and is now considered to be "ancient Egypt's most controversial ruler". Akhenaten's social and cultural upheaval and his motivation to do this had its roots in the reign of his father, Amenhotep III. His rearranging of state religion impacted on the Egyptian people at the time, while his new style of art and artistic impression also had a significant impact. However, these major changes and alterations to Egyptian culture and politics were only short lived.

Following Akhenaten's death, his successors went about undoing the changes Akhenaten had implemented and tried to re-establish the old and more traditional ways. Thus, Akhenaten's reign had a very big impact on religion and art at the time, even though these changes were attempted to be erased by the proceeding pharaohs and rulers.

Firstly, some of the great changes that Akhenaten brought into being seem to have their roots in the reign of his father Amenhotep III. Although these changes were no where near as severe during Amenhotep III's rule, the basis and origins from which they probably came from can be seen. Several portraits have been found showing an elderly Amenhotep and his lined and rather disagreeable looking queen, Tiy. These portraits suggest that realism had started to come into vogue and was starting to be used before Akhenaten...