Details
AN 'AMARNA' GESSO-PAINTED SANDSTONE 'TALATAT' RELIEF, probably of Queen Nefertiti, showing the profile royal head wearing a layered wig, offering food (to the Aten) from which benevolent rays fall down, eight cartouches of Akhenaten are gesso-painted in red and yellow with black detail on the armlets of the Queen, traces of red, yellow and white detail on her dress, Late Dynasty XVIII, early part of the reign of Akhenaten, circa 1350 B.C.
15 x 8½in. (38 x 22cm.)
15 x 8½in. (38 x 22cm.)
Provenance
The Aten Temple, Karnak
The Aten Temple was destroyed shortly after the King's death and most of the blocks were levelled or reused in the pylon of Horemheb. Many have been scattered throughout the museums and private collections of the world. An attempt was made by Ray Winfield Smith to reconstruct the temple by means of a computer, cf. R. Winfield Smith, Computer helps Scholars Recreate an Egyptian Temple, National Geographic, vol. 138, no. 5, November 1970, pp. 634-655.
For a similar scene, cf., C. Aldred, Akhenaten and Nefertiti, The Brooklyn Museum, 1973, p. 113, no. 27. Food offerings are made to the Aten in return for spiritual beneficence
The Aten Temple was destroyed shortly after the King's death and most of the blocks were levelled or reused in the pylon of Horemheb. Many have been scattered throughout the museums and private collections of the world. An attempt was made by Ray Winfield Smith to reconstruct the temple by means of a computer, cf. R. Winfield Smith, Computer helps Scholars Recreate an Egyptian Temple, National Geographic, vol. 138, no. 5, November 1970, pp. 634-655.
For a similar scene, cf., C. Aldred, Akhenaten and Nefertiti, The Brooklyn Museum, 1973, p. 113, no. 27. Food offerings are made to the Aten in return for spiritual beneficence