Standing Amarna King
Description
<p>This small and somewhat ungainly figure of a king represents that remarkable period of religious revolution when Akhenaten (1352-1336 BCE) introduced the worship of his personal god, the Aten, the orb of the sun. Although the ruler represented by this tiny bronze image is not known, the details of dress and body confirm the dating. The so-called Nubian wig that slants from back to front was popular in this era, as was the pleated kilt that hugs the thighs and features a long front sash. The body type is also of this era, when the king's figure was deliberately elongated at the torso and enlarged in the chest and hip region. Most characteristic of all is the crescent shape of the navel, which narrows to a point at the bottom. The shape recalls one that naturally appears when the stomach is distended by plumpness and wrinkling; the art of the Amarna era was above all naturalistic. The figure's broad collar establishes a date for the work; such collars were not represented covering the shoulders until this precise time period, when the fashion for draping the necklace onto the arms emerged. Numerous images of Amarna kings wearing this collar show the same detail.The small king is solid cast; while the arms and legs are poorly modeled, the necklace and kilt are carefully detailed. Study of this piece has indicated that the bronze was originally gilded.</p><p>For the latest information about this object, <cite><a href='https://purl.thewalters.org/art/54.406' rel='external'>Standing Amarna King</a></cite>, visit the Online Collection of the Walters Art Museum.</p>
AI image analysis GPT-5.4-nano
Machine-generated from the object's image on Jul 2026. Not curatorial; treat deities, names, and signs below as the model's best reading, not authority.
Small standing female-presenting bronze figure with arms at the sides and a wig/headdress; the head and torso have a defined, stylized face and beard-like or chin ornament details.
The image shows a single standing, human-form figure on top of a modern rectangular support block. The figure appears bronze/greenish patinated and is shown full-length: legs slightly apart, arms hanging close to the body, with a fitted kilt and a horizontal belt across the waist. The head has a stylized wig/headdress; the face is simplified with defined eyes and a small mouth. No clear cartouche or readable hieroglyphic inscriptions are visible on the figure or base in this image. There is no visible Greek/Coptic/Arabic text. The catalogue ground truth describes the object as a “Standing Amarna King” in solid cast bronze; while the material appearance is consistent with bronze, the image does not provide clear iconographic markers (e.g., identifiable royal headdress, titulary, or distinctive Amarna king features) to confirm that the figure is specifically an Amarna king rather than an otherwise stylized standing figure.
Cross-references (2)
- Walters-AccNum 54.406 tier-2
- Walters-id 8931 tier-2
About this record's data
- From the source institution — accession, description, dimensions, and dating are as catalogued by Walters Art Museum (Egyptian).
- AI-inferred — the image-analysis panel (deities, names, signs) is machine-generated and may be wrong.
- Approximate location — most map points are plotted at the site centroid, not the exact findspot.
- Inferred links — cross-references marked with a match method other than explicit-source-field were matched by us, not stated by the source.