Characteristic relief showing the sun disk bestowing blessings on people. The Aton was never shown in human or animal form, except insofar as the extended rays of the sun disk might end in hands to confer blessings upon men. This was the life-giving and life-sustaining power of the sun. He had no image in the hidden sanctuary of a temple but was to be worshiped out in sun-warmed openness. The buildings for the Aton were of a new kind. The massive solidity of the older temples was given up, and walls were run up of much smaller stones and were jammed with excited little scenes in a feverish new art. There is one of these reliefs in Luxor, and compared to the sedate reliefs of earlier and later periods, looks like the work of drugged kindergarteners.

© Monica & Mark Hughes 2000-02