Egyptian sculpture

136 EGYPTIAN SCULPTURE

ability a likeness of the man. The body is that of a man in whom the muscles are entirely undeveloped, probably on account of disease, quite possibly also as a result of a life of idleness. It is part of a dyad; the queen’s figure has disappeared, only her hand on the king’s waist still remains.

The small alabaster figure of Akhenaten (Pl. XX XIII. 2), now in the Berlin Museum, shows the usual characteristics of the king, with the exception of the fact that this statue has a definitely feminine figure. It is certainly the king, for not only does he wear the blue crown, but also it has unmistakably the physiognomy of Akhenaten. The figure lends colour to the theory, which was in vogue at one period of Egyptology, that Akhenaten was, in fact, a woman, It is not of the finest workmanship of Tell el Amarna, but shows the king at the middle period of his reign, when the beauty of youth had passed, but before the ravages of disease had quite destroyed that beauty.

The form of the head at Tell el Amarna has been the subject of much discussion, as to whether the shape of the princesses’ heads is due to natural or artificial deformation. There is, however, another suggestion which I wish to make, and this is that it is simply a method of arranging the hair which happened to be then in fashion. The head of the body now identified as that of Akhenaten is elongated, though not to the exaggerated extent represented in the sculpture. This defect would necessarily be copied by the court, who would use artificial means to appear with heads of the fashionable form. The bodies of the queen and princesses have not been recovered, or, if recovered, have not been identified, and one can therefore only judge by the statues and reliefs. Taking into consideration, however, the difficulty of representing in sculpture hair which is smoothed and oiled, it is possible that the shape of the heads of these ladies is due to the taking