Page:A History of Art in Ancient Egypt Vol 2.djvu/274

 244 A History of Art in Ancient Egypt. wished to introduce into the national reHgion when he attempted to destroy the name and images of Amen, and to replace them with those of a solar god, who was represented by a symbol not previously encountered in the monuments (Fig. 2). If Mariette's hypotheses remain uncontradicted by later discoveries, we may admit Taia to be the mother of Amenophis IV., and to her influence in all probability would her son's denial and persecution of the great Theban deity be due. Our present interest, however, is with the features of Amenophis. They have been faithfully handed down to us by the artists employed at Tell-el-Amarna.^ By the help of these bas-reliefs a statuette in yellow steatite, now in the Louvre (Fig. 216), has been recognized as a portrait of this Pharaoh. Its workmanship is very fine. Some have thought that in these bas-reliefs, and in the Louvre statuette, the " facial characteristics and the peculiar shapes of breast and abdomen by which eunuchs are distinguished, are to be found." ^ On the other hand, we know that while still very young Amenophis IV. married the queen Nowertiouta, and that he had seven daughters by her. "It is probable, therefore, that if the misfortune alluded to really befell him, it was during the wars waged by Amenophis III. against the negro races of the south." In any case, Amenophis IV. bore no resemblance to any one of the long procession of princes whose portraits have come down to us, from the early dynasties of the Ancient Empire to the Roman conquest. Lepsius devotes a series of plates to the iconography of the Egyptian kings, and among them all we find nothing that can be compared to the almost fantastic personality of Amenophis, with his low, unintellectual forehead, his pendulous cheeks, his feminine contours, and his general expression of gloom and melancholy. The fidelity with which all these unpleasing features are reproduced is extraordinary, and can only be accounted for by the existence of a tradition so well established that no one thouorht of breakinof through it, even when the portrait of a semi-divine monarch was in question. There are other works dating from this period which show the same desire for truth at any price. One of the series of bas- reliefs discovered by IMariette in the Temple of Dayr-el-Bahari ^ Deiikmceler, vol. vi. plates 91-111. The curious ugliness of this king is most clearly shown in plate 109. 2 Mariette, BuUeiin Archhlogi'jue de r AtJicnmDti Francais, 1S55, p. 57.