Inscribed fragment, pictorial relief (?), Aten cartouche
Unknown Artist
ca. 1353–1336 B.C.
Medium
Indurated limestone
Dimensions
H. 4.5 × W. 4.5 × D. 2.9 cm (1 3/4 × 1 3/4 × 1 1/8 in.)
Classification
Inscribed fragment, pictorial relief (?), Aten cartouche
Period
New Kingdom, Amarna Period
Department
Egyptian Art
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1957
Accession Number
57.180.30
Art Historical Context
This petite inscribed fragment of indurated limestone, just 4.5 cm square, hails from Egypt's New Kingdom Amarna Period (ca. 1353–1336 B.C.), during 18. Likely part of a larger pictorial relief, it bears a cartouche—a royal name enclosed in an oval ring—dedicated to the Aten, the sun disk deity central to Pharaoh Akhenaten's revolutionaryotheistic cult. Discovered and acquired through the Harris Brisbane Dick Fund 1957, it now graces the Metropolitan Museum of Art Egyptian Art collection. The Amarna Period marked a dramatic shift in Egyptian art and religion, with Akhenaten abandoning traditi...