Fragment of a sunk relief: heads of female attendants

The New Kingdom pharaoh Akhenaten presided over a major religious shift in Egypt. He abandoned polytheism and promoted a monotheistic religion worshipping the Aten (Sun-disk), centred around his new capital city of Amarna. Alongside these reforms, the art of Akhenaten’s court became more expressionistic, markedly different from Egypt’s earlier, more rigid style. Variously cast as a visionary or heretic, Akhenaten proved greatly inspirational to twentieth-century artists, as did the artistic style of his reign.