Horses Harnessed to a Chariot

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Numerous representations of horse-drawn chariots are included in the official scenes at Amarna. Both the king and queen are shown driving themselves in what appears to be a mad dash to the Great Temple, their attendants racing behind. In its way, the arrival by chariot, in the view of the populace, constitutes a kind of procession that replaces the processions of divine images in traditional Egyptian religion. Throughout Egyptian history, artists took great care in depicting animals, a tradition that was continued and expanded during the Amarna period. On this fragment, a pair of horses are at rest, probably waiting outside the entrance to the temple for the reemergence of the royal family. The artist has depicted the instant one horse nibbles at its leg. This capturing of a moment in time, though not found exclusively in the art of Amarna, probably would not have appeared in a ceremonial context in any other period of Egypt

Egyptian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Met collection of ancient Egyptian art consists of approximately 30,000 objects of artistic, historical, and cultural importance, dating from about 300,000 BCE to the 4th century CE. A signifcant percentage of the collection is derived from the Museum's three decades of archaeological work in Egypt, initiated in 1906 in response to increasing interest in the culture of ancient Egypt.

Metropolitan Museum of Art