Bek or Bak (
Egyptian
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for "Servant") was the first chief royal sculptor during the reign of Pharaoh
Akhenaten
Akhenaten (pronounced ), also spelled Echnaton, Akhenaton, ( egy, ꜣḫ-n-jtn ''ʾŪḫə-nə-yātəy'', , meaning "Effective for the Aten"), was an ancient Egyptian pharaoh reigning or 1351–1334 BC, the tenth ruler of the Eighteenth Dy ...
. His father Men held the same position under Akhenaten's father
Amenhotep III
Amenhotep III ( egy, jmn-ḥtp(.w), ''Amānəḥūtpū'' , "Amun is Satisfied"; Hellenized as Amenophis III), also known as Amenhotep the Magnificent or Amenhotep the Great, was the ninth pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty. According to different ...
; his mother Roi was a woman from
Heliopolis.
Bek grew up in Heliopolis, an important cult centre of the sun god
Ra. The young prince Amenhotep (who became the pharaoh Akhenaten) had a palace here, and it is likely that his religious views were formed in part by the Heliopolitan teachings. Bek followed his lord to
Akhet-Aten
Amarna (; ar, العمارنة, al-ʿamārnah) is an extensive Egyptian archaeological site containing the remains of what was the capital city of the late Eighteenth Dynasty. The city was established in 1346 BC, built at the direction of the Ph ...
, the city founded by Akhenaten. He oversaw the construction of the great temple statues of the king and the opening of the
Aswan
Aswan (, also ; ar, أسوان, ʾAswān ; cop, Ⲥⲟⲩⲁⲛ ) is a city in Southern Egypt, and is the capital of the Aswan Governorate.
Aswan is a busy market and tourist centre located just north of the Aswan Dam on the east bank of the ...
and
Gebel es-Silsila stone quarries, from where the stone was transported.
A
stela
A stele ( ),Anglicized plural steles ( ); Greek plural stelai ( ), from Greek , ''stēlē''. The Greek plural is written , ''stēlai'', but this is only rarely encountered in English. or occasionally stela (plural ''stelas'' or ''stelæ''), whe ...
found in Aswan, made around the 9th regnal year of Akhenaten shows Men and his son Bek with the pharaohs they serve. On the right side Men stands before the statue of Amenhotep III. The statue is very likely to be one of the colossi of the pharaoh that was made by Men. This side of the stela reflects the traditional artistic style of the 18th Dynasty, and the only indication of the
Amarna Period
The Amarna Period was an era of History of Ancient Egypt, Egyptian history during the later half of the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt, Eighteenth Dynasty when the royal residence of the pharaoh and his queen was shifted to Akhetaten ('Horizon of the ...
is that the name "Amenhotep" is left out, instead of it the pharaoh's throne name "Nebmaatre" is repeated, in order to avoid having to mention the god
Amun
Amun (; also ''Amon'', ''Ammon'', ''Amen''; egy, jmn, reconstructed as (Old Egyptian and early Middle Egyptian) → (later Middle Egyptian) → (Late Egyptian), cop, Ⲁⲙⲟⲩⲛ, Amoun) romanized: ʾmn) was a major ancient Egyptian ...
whose cult was forbidden. On the left side of the stela Bek is shown before Akhenaten, who makes offerings to his god
Aten
Aten also Aton, Atonu, or Itn ( egy, jtn, ''reconstructed'' ) was the focus of Atenism, the religious system established in ancient Egypt by the Eighteenth Dynasty pharaoh Akhenaten. The Aten was the disc of the sun and originally an aspect of ...
; according to the inscription the depicted scene is set in the
Great Temple of the Aten
The Great Temple of the Aten (or the ''pr-Jtn'', House of the Aten)Barbara Watterson, Amarna: Ancient Egypt’s Age of Revolution (Charleston, SC: Tempus Publishing, 1999), 69-72. was a temple located in the city of el- Amarna (ancient Akhetaten), ...
. A typical feature of Amarna era pictures, the rays of Aten end in hands. Aten's and Akhenaten's name was later chiseled out.
[Aldred, op.cit., p.93]
On the stela Bek states that he is "the apprentice whom His Majesty taught". It is likely that he oversaw the making of the statues which show Akhenaten and his family in an overly naturalistic style, breaking with the idealised depiction that tradition demanded.
[Aldred, p.94]
A stela (now in
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
) shows Bek with his wife Taheret. This is possibly the first self-portrait in history. The inscription of this stela also mentions him being taught by Akhenaten. A drawing of Akhenaten, which depicts the pharaoh and Aten and is likely to have been made in the early years of his reign, is possibly Bek's work. This picture shows Aten with a falcon-headed man, which was an attribute of Ra.
Some other sculptors of the Amarna Period are also known by name, including
Thutmose
Thutmose (also rendered Thutmoses, Thutmosis, Tuthmose, Tutmosis, Thothmes, Tuthmosis, Thutmes, Djhutmose, Djehutymes, etc.) is an Anglicization of the Ancient Egyptian personal name ''dhwty-ms'', usually translated as "Born of the god Thoth".
Th ...
(creator of the famous Nefertiti bust) and Yuti, sculptor of Queen
Tiye
Tiye (c. 1398 BC – 1338 BC, also spelled Tye, Taia, Tiy and Tiyi) was the daughter of Yuya and Thuya. She became the Great Royal Wife of the Egyptian pharaoh Amenhotep III. She was the mother of Akhenaten and grandmother of Tutankhamun. I ...
.
Sources
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Ancient Egyptian sculptors
People of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt
14th-century BC Egyptian people