AKHENATEN’S REFORMS: VISUAL REORGANIZATION AND THE LEGITIMATION OF POWER DURING THE AMARNA PERIOD (1353–1335 BCE)

Abstract

This study investigates the transformations in the artistic representation of the royal family during the reign of Pharaoh Akhenaten (1353–1335 BCE) and how this symbolic reorganization redefined forms of reproduction in the visual arts of the Amarna Period. The central problem of the research is to understand why such changes occurred and what impacts they produced on the symbolic processes of legitimizing royal power. The study is based on the hypothesis that these modifications were religiously and politically connected to a project aimed at producing new forms of visuality and reaffirming the pharaoh’s authority. The objective is to understand how images contributed to the consolidation of royal authority in Amarna. To this end, the research seeks to contextualize the historical framework and the main political and religious transformations, understand the resulting changes in the visual arts, and interpret these transitions in light of historiography and contemporary studies on image, power, and representation in Ancient Egypt. This research is bibliographic and documentary in nature, with a qualitative approach, and is grounded in the iconographic and iconological analysis of the visual arts produced during this period. The results indicate that the pictorial transformations implemented during the reign of Pharaoh Akhenaten reformulated the imagetic conventions consolidated within the Egyptian artistic tradition, introducing new ways of depicting the body, family intimacy, and royal authority. It is concluded that, even for a brief period, such changes went beyond the aesthetic sphere and constituted symbolic strategies linked to the religious and political restructurings of the period, contributing to the development of new visual forms and new mechanisms for validating power in Ancient Egypt.