“With the move to Amarna the art becomes less exaggerated, but while it is often described as ‘naturalistic’ it remains highly stylised in its portrayal of the human figure. The royal family are shown with elongated skulls and pear-shaped bodies with skinny torsos and arms but fuller hips, stomachs and thighs. The subject matter of royal art also changes. Although formal scenes of the king worshipping remain important there is an increasing emphasis on ordinary, day-to-day activities which include intimate portrayals of Akhenaten and Nefertiti playing with their daughters beneath the rays of the Aten… While traditional Egyptian art tends to emphasise the eternal, Amarna art focuses on the minutiae of life which only occur because of the light – and life-giving power of the sun.” writes Dr Kate Spence for BBC History and I use this quote as an introduction to Nofernoferuaton and Nofernoferure, my new POST on Egyptian Art.     http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/egyptians/akhenaten_01.shtml

I would like to continue with another short quote by Dr Kate Spence “Akhenaten is a source of endless fascination and speculation – this often masks the fact that we actually know very little about him.” This quote marks the beginning of my Grade 7 Unit on the Art of the Amarna Period. I have been teaching this Unit for years and I can only testify to the fact that the Amarna Period allure attracts my student’s attention and captivates their imagination. They like to read and listen to their teacher describe the genesis of an almost “monotheistic” religion, the dynamics within a powerful royal family, the building of a new capital city, and how Egyptian Art of the period moved towards naturalism and informality.

The Amarna Idiom is an artistic style that captivates human reaction. My students are “hypnotized” by the unique Amarna pictorial beauty of deformation. They are charmed, yet question how in the depiction of faces, thin, long necks, hold greatly elongated skulls… facial folds are the norm, narrow, slitted eyes are prominent and jaws seem to be “hanging” low. The Amarna style body rendering amazes my students as well, particularly the discrepancy between the upper, lower and middle parts of the human body… the dropped, thin shoulders, heavy potbelly, large hips and thighs, and the rather thin, almost frail, legs.

At some point, towards the end of my Amarna Unit, I ran a survey, titled “My Favourite Amarna Work of Art,” as I am always interested to understand what artistic qualities attract the admiration of my students. Among the finalists in my survey is the fresco painting of Nofernoferuaton and Nofernoferure, coming from Akhenaton’s capital city Akhetaten, known today as Tell el- Amarna, and exhibited in the Ashmolean Museum. Students love the bright, warm, terracotta-coloured palette, the casual, relaxed composition theme, the depicted stylistic exaggerations, and the overall sense of family affection that embraces the pictorial arrangement.

This fresco, fragile and precious, was discovered in the early 1890s by William Flinders Petrie, the renown archaeologist, at Akhetaten, “The horizon of the Aten,” where the visionary Pharaoh Akhenaton lived with his queen, Nefertiti, their six daughters, Nofernoferuaton and Nofernoferure among them, and the rest of the royal family. “The painting was made on a thin layer of gesso – powdered gypsum mixed with a glue – applied to mud plaster on a brick wall… (Petrie) discovered that the wall had been much damaged by ants and its preservation is a tribute to Petrie’s remarkable skills as an archaeologist.” https://www.ashmolean.org/princess-fresco     and     https://www.amarnaproject.com/pages/amarna_the_place/central_city/index.shtml

Unearthed in the King’s House, “an enclosure measuring 123 by 140 meters, inside of which the building took the form of a U around a garden, with the actual residence of the king at the rear,” the Princess’s fresco depicts “Akhenaten and Nefertiti relaxing with their daughters, two of which are sitting casually on floor cushions in the foreground. The red sash of Nefertiti’s dress falls behind them, and to the right are Akhenaten’s sandaled feet. Between them stand three more daughters; the sixth daughter was probably shown seated on her mother’s lap, as suggested by a surviving fragment depicting a baby’s hand. The style and subject of this painting are in direct contrast to conventional Egyptian art and reflects the revolutionary character of the period.” Simply but beautifully said…     http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/royalestate.htm     and     https://www.ashmolean.org/princess-fresco

For a PowerPoint on Nofernoferuaton and Nofernoferure, please… Check HERE!

For a Student Activity, please… Check HERE!

If interested in smart Amarna period Resources and Activities, please… Check https://www.arch.cam.ac.uk/research/projects/current-projects/life-ancient-egypt-amarna-resources-schools/ancient-amarna  

“In December 1826, the German merchant and art collector Johannes David Weber (1773–1847) wrote to the younger Venetian jurist and local antiquarian Emanuel Antonio Cicogna (1789–1869) about two stone pillars on the south side of the Church of San Marco in Venice… With Weber’s letter begins the modern study of what came to be known as the PilastrιAcritni, the pillars of Acre, because Weber and many before him regarded them as trophies of the Venetian defeat of the Genoese at Acre in the mid-thirteenth century. Decorated with vine ornament, crosses, and Greek monograms, the piers are simple, if imposing, monoliths that have few overt clues to their origin; hence, the problem that Weber’s letter sought to solve. In 1960, the Venetian historiographic tradition that Weber represents was overturned by the discovery of the sixth-century Church of Hagios Polyeuktos in Istanbul. Its subsequent excavation proved that the piers came from this site, most likely in the aftermath of the Venetian-led Fourth Crusade that sacked Constantinople in 1204…” A straightforward introduction by Robert Nelson, I humbly borrow, for my new POST, Pilastri Acritani and European 19th century Art.     https://www.academia.edu/3585135/_The_History_of_Legends_and_the_Legends_of_History_The_Pilastri_Acritani_in_Venice_in_H_Maguire_and_R_Nelson_eds_San_Marco_Byzantium_and_the_Myths_of_Venice_Washington_D_C_Dumbarton_Oaks_Research_Library_and_Collection_63_90

“The Pilastri Acritani (‘Pillars of Acre’) are two elaborately decorated pillars,” writes David Hendrix in Byzantine Legacy “near the southern side of the Basilica of San Marco in Venice. The pillars are among the many spoils looted in the sack of Constantinople in 1204. They were also considered by John Ruskin to be the two most noble pillars in Venice. As their name suggests, they were long regarded as trophies of the Venetian defeat of the Genoese in Acre. In 1960, excavations in Istanbul proved that they originated from the Church of Hagios Polyeuktos. Decorated with vine ornament, crosses, and Greek monograms, the pillars share features of other architectural remains found in the excavation which can now be found at the Istanbul Archaeological Museums. Most likely they were brought back to Venice after the sack of Constantinople in 1204. The area around the Church of Hagios Polyeuktos became of the Venetian sector of Constantinople, which was centered at the nearby Pantokrator Monastery…”     https://www.thebyzantinelegacy.com/pilastri-acritani

I enjoyed reading…     “The History of Legends and the Legends of History: The ‘Pilastri Acritani’ in Venice,” in H. Maguire and R. Nelson, eds., San Marco, Byzantium and the Myths of Venice, Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, 63-90 and “Pilastri Acritani” in Byzantine Legacy. Both articles/presentations intrigued my curiosity to find 19th-century European artworks inspired by the amazing Constantinopolian treasures in the Basilica of San Marco in Venice. I searched the Internet and here is what I discovered… I am sure there is more, maybe another time another day… 

For a PowerPoint on the Pilastri Acritani and European 19th century Art, please… Check HERE!

The Artist’s Psyche… “What sort of draining challenge is an artist’s lifelong struggle to retain individuality and independence? …How badly do criticism and rejection hurt an artist’s morale? What exactly are the traits of the creative personality (more than 75 traits have been identified) and what is the shadow side of each trait?” questions Eric Maisel, and I think of Nikolaos Gyzis, one of the eminent Greek artists of the 19^th century and his painting The Artist’s Psyche… aethereal and fragile, winged but motionless, lost in thought…     https://medium.com/@RoweCenter/the-psyche-of-the-artist-seven-tips-for-living-the-artists-life-9331c650e722

In her monograph on the artist, N. Misirli notes: Gyzis, a visionary by nature, was distinguished by an idealistic outlook on life, which was evident throughout his oeuvre and especially in his allegorical compositions, which were further fuelled by the idealistic and symbolist trends already introduced in the second half of the 19th century. His idealistic output receives fresh impetus following his first trip to Greece. 4 (This trip, his first after seven years in Germany, was made in 1872 and was a life-changing experience for Gyzis.) For Gyzis, life had two aspects. The one the artist observed and perceived with his senses, such as daily events and genre episodes, and, at the same time, the one he envisioned, the intangible, eternal aspect that only a few sensitive souls can detect.     Nellie Misirli, Gyzis [in Greek], Adam ed., Athens 1996, p. 212     and     http://www.nikias.gr/view_artist_additional.php?newsid=993&page=1&prod_id=166&ptid=8491&mtag=&mode=painting_comments&paintspage=

The Artist’s Psyche belongs to the second category, a visionary work, an allegory of the artist’s soul, compared to the adventures taken by Psyche, the mythological wife of Aphrodite’s son Eros, for her husband’s eternal love. The coloured drawing was created by Nikolaos Gyzis in 1893, as a cover-page decoration to a biographical note written by Gyzis and addressed to a large European Museum. It is a work instilled with elegance, harmony and qualities of grace, refinement and pure loveliness…

Nikolaos Gyzis, one of Greece’s most important 19th-century painters, is a distinguished representative of the so-called “Munich School”, the major 19th-century Greek Art Movement. He was born in the Cycladic Island of Tinos, a great artistic center of Greece, raised in Athens and educated, as a young man, at the Athens School of Fine Arts. In 1865, on scholarship, Gyzis continued his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, where he settled for the rest of his life. In 1868, Nikolaos Gyzis entered Karl von Piloty’s class where his artistic idiom was formed. Trips to Greece and the Middle East “formed his perception of rendering colour and light.” In 1886, he was elected professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, serving in this post faithfully and diligently as an ever-evolving academician and creative artist. His style, gradually turned from detailed genre realistic depictions, to creations of idealistic-allegorical character, to compositions of impressionistic inspiration, and finally works of early Jugendstil.     https://www.nationalgallery.gr/en/painting-permanent-exhibition/painter/gyzis-nikolaos.html

For a Student Activity, please… Check HERE!