Trial Piece with Relief of Head of Akhenaten

Trial Piece with Relief of Head of Akhenaten

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The slanting slitted eye, heavy everted lips, and drooping chin here recognizably signify the pharaoh Akhenaten. This piece is a 'sculptor's model' from Amarna. Such models are roughly rectangular slabs of stone on which the representation is theorized to be a master's model for his assistants to follow while decorating a wall with relief or, alternatively, an apprentice's study piece. At least in some instances, however, such pieces may have been intended or served secondarily as donations. For instance, one such relief found in the Great Temple of the Aton at Amarna shows a kneeling figure on the reverse side of a royal representation. The king's image appears to be unfinished, lacking characteristic furrows and lines and the royal uraeus.

Egyptian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Trial Piece with Relief of Head of AkhenatenTrial Piece with Relief of Head of AkhenatenTrial Piece with Relief of Head of AkhenatenTrial Piece with Relief of Head of AkhenatenTrial Piece with Relief of Head of Akhenaten

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.