(far left) This early wooden sculpture is entitled "Sheik" It exemplifies the style of "frontalism," which never leaves the evolution of Egyptian sculpture over thousands of years. (right)"Menkue and his Queen" are cut from stone, but do not stand freely; they are not completely liberated from the rock. This sculpture is dated later than Sheik. Rulers are now shown with their wives. While their bodies are stiff, their faces are serene and natural when compared to the Sheik. The style in which they are sculpted was dictated by the pharoah himself. The austere posture was also a symbol, a way to show authority. When looking at Menkue, the way he is sculpted, makes you think that he was a very important person.

"Ti Hunting the Hippopotamus" is carved on a surface of a stone. This form of artwork is called a relief. Here we see frontalism in the two dimensional form. Ti's shoulders and head make right angles. All the figures, humans and hippos alike, are etched in profile. However, the slaves and the animals are more natural and relaxed. Ti is enormous, while the slaves who row his boat are comparatively small. Also, in real life, hippos are larger than people, but this image of Ti could easily outweigh two of the hippos he is hunting. Why did the Egyptians paint this way? Didn't they know better? Didn't they have the artistic skill to paint things as they really were? The theory behind the style is that Ti is a pharoah, therefore associated with the gods, and to show that he is a diety, he is painted in the severe style of frontalism. The slaves are lesser beings. To show this, they are painted more naturally, and the animals are painted even more realistically than that.

Cute little guy, isn't he? Another artistic "rule" is that nothing should be drawn infront of the face or body of the pharoah. That is why, in this painting, the king has drawn his bow behind his back, with his arms bent at unusual angles. This was not a hunting technique!

This noble is spending his leisure time hunting fowl with his cat. His wife accompanies him, as many women did. Notice that the birds, and especially the fish, are painted very realistically, with attention paid to the slightest details, while the humans conform to the cartoon-like frontalistic style.

"Akenaten and Nefretiti"

During the reign of Akenaten, there were many political and religious changes. Akenaten decided that Egyptians should workship one god, Aten, and he relocated the pharoah's house from the capitol of Thebes to Armana, the city of the cult of the Aten, the sun god. Akenaten even changed his name, which was origianally Akenahmun, which means servant of the head-god Ahmun, to Akenaten, which means servant of the sun. These changes influenced the art and sculpture. The rigid poses of former images were completely abandoned. Akenaten ordered his artists to portray him in relaxed, natural poses. The characters in these portraits seem to move with fluidity in comparison to the old reliefs, where figures seem to be stuck in their formal positions for eternity.

Here, the sun god, represented by the disk, extends his arm-like rays down to Akenaten and Nefretiti. Akenaten's physical traits showed through in the artwork, whereas beforehand, the representations were only slightly suggestive of the subject's personal features. In the picture at the far right, Akenaten is show with a potruding chin, oblong head, thick lips, and his belly hangs over his garment. Any other pharoah would never expose his foibles in stone. Perhaps Akenaten wanted to personalize his image, so that he would be remembered by his face as the pharoah who brought renching change to Egyptian society. This change in the style of art, which was called the Armana style, dominated while he and then his son, the famous King Tut, held the throne. The unique artwork sets Akenaten's reign apart from all the other pharoahs. Perhaps this was his modus operendi. Akenaten caused so much outrage among his people, that King Tut, upon inheriting the throne, immeadiatly changed the religion back to polytheoism, and changed the ending of his name, which was "aten," like his predecessor, to "ahmun" so that his permanent name, and the name on his tomb, reads "Tutenkahmun." The cult of Aten, however, was the major relgious infuence in young life, and therefore there is much evidence of the sun god in the art found in his tomb.

After Tutenkahmun's death, the Armana style immeadiately ended, and the original, formal poses of the past were revived. These are two of Tutenkahmun's sucessors.

The artwork that accompanies Ramses the second's reign was extreme. This scultpure of Ramses is also a structutral component of his temple. Indeed, he looks more like a pillar than a person. His queen is very hard to see. She is a tiny figurine adjacent to his calf. This style of art is Ramses's symbol of authority.