Bust of Akhenaten

Akhenaten’s devotion to the Aten was not just religious; it was artistic and philosophical. In hymns likely written or commissioned by the king himself, such as the Great Hymn to the Aten, Akhenaten exalts the sun’s warmth as the giver of all life, with language that reads more like sacred poetry than royal decree. This idealised vision of divine love, natural order, and unity under one god stands in stark contrast to the complex pantheon of Ancient Egypt’s past, making Akhenaten appear as a spiritual visionary ahead of his time.

This extraordinary bust of Akhenaten (Neues Museum. ÄM 21360) marks the beginning of one of the most spectacular archaeological discoveries associated with the Amarna Period. Unearthed on 6 December 1912 by the German team under Ludwig Borchardt at House P 47.2 in Amarna, the bust was found in the northeast corner room of the building, which functioned as a sculptor’s workshop, identified today as belonging to the royal sculptor Thutmose.

This bust, along with the fragments of a small queen’s statue (Neues Museum. ÄM 21263) and the first gypsum model head of a man (Neues Museum. ÄM 21280), led the excavators further into the northeast section of the chamber, where, later that afternoon, they discovered the famous painted bust of Nefertiti.

The bust of Akhenaten is unique in that it was the only painted, even gilded and finished royal sculpture found in the twin chambers. Traces of ancient destruction to its crown-band and decorative mandrake fruit suggest that the gold leaf was deliberately stripped (likely for its material value) while the brutal smashing of the face was almost certainly an act of damnatio memoriae, the formal erasure of the king’s memory, possibly carried out after his death during the restoration of the Amun cult.

In Borchardt’s early report (DOG Mitteilungen, 1913), he compared this Berlin bust to a related portrait model of Akhenaten in the Musée du Louvre (E 11076). He praised the Berlin piece as a masterwork by Thutmose, noting that the artist didn’t simply create plaster models, but executed the king’s likeness in painted limestone, even adding gilding for realism and grandeur.

“Our master Thutmose did not content himself with simple plaster prototypes for his assistants. For important works—such as the royal portraits—he created fully realised limestone models, complete with colour and even gold.”

Though the Berlin bust was found shattered; 15 fragments have been reassembled, with 5–6 small ear fragments still resisting restoration, it was once exquisitely crafted. Borchardt regretted that its severe damage now made artistic comparison with the better-preserved Louvre piece more difficult. However, he suspected that, if both had survived in equal condition, this Berlin bust (especially in its finely modelled mouth and neck) would be the superior work.

In his 1913 publication, Ludwig Borchardt described the head covering of the Akhenaten bust as a “Perücke”, a wig. This was a reasonable assumption at the time, but modern scholarship now recognises that the sculpted headdress is in fact a damaged version of the khepresh, the blue crown of battle and ceremonial kingship. When Borchardt documented the find, the upper portion of the headdress was badly damaged when the bust was found, especially around the uraeus and crown band. The mandrake motifs and golden diadem band, typical of the khepresh, were only partially preserved.

The bust of Akhenaten was reassembled in modern times from the fragments found in 1912. Since then, several tiny ear fragments (5–6 pieces) have never been fitted, but the majority of the sculpture has been sympathetically reconstructed. The restored bust preserves the torso, neck, crown, and face, though the nose and parts of the facial surface were heavily damaged in antiquity. The reconstruction remains faithful to the original modelling and maintains its original Amarna features, such as the elongated neck and expressive mouth.

In this image above, we see the bust in its stripped-down or “raw” conservation state, where detached or unstable fragments (like the lips) are removed to avoid strain on the sculpture, or to make visible the extent of the original damage. Museums occasionally display sculptures this way to preserve transparency about their fragmentary nature, or during periods of conservation assessment.

The lips are not modern reconstructions in the sense of being speculative restorations. They are in fact original fragments found at the site during the excavation of House P 47.2 in 1912. In his 1913 description, Borchardt and the subsequent museum records noted that 15 pieces were recovered and reassembled in Berlin. These were all authentic pieces, including portions of the face, mouth, and crown-band, which were found scattered among the rubble and then carefully catalogued.

The lips, though damaged, are original and are attached during certain reconstructions or photographic documentations to give a clearer sense of the sculpture’s full form.

The crown-band (diadem) and mandrake fruit decoration on the khepresh are also original elements, though not always visible due to lighting, photographic angle, or conservation status.

In the “Im Licht von Amarna” 2012 exhibition, the bust was shown with and without these elements to demonstrate both the original state of recovery and the reconstructed ideal.

The bust of Nefertiti

While looking at this bust of Akhenaten, one’s mind goes straight to thinking of the bust of Akhenaten’s Great Royal Wife, Nefertiti, whose image, cemented in limestone, has become a vision of beauty that spans the ages, defying time.

Both Akhenaten’s and Nefertiti’s busts were crafted from painted limestone, found in the same room of Thutmose’s sculptor’s workshop at Amarna, and likely served as master reference models rather than display pieces.

The busts of Akhenaten (Neues Museum. ÄM 21360) and Nefertiti (Neues Museum. ÄM 21263) are widely considered to be life-size, or extremely close to it. The bust of Akhenaten measures approximately 50 cm in height (just under 20 inches), accounting for the neck, upper chest, and partial headdress. The bust of Nefertiti, measuring at 48 cm, similarly including the elongated neck and iconic flat-topped crown. When accounting for the fact that these are busts only (with no lower torso or full headdress extant in Akhenaten’s case) the proportions of the facial features, necks, and cranial structures are all naturalistic and anatomically scaled for an adult human. Their life-size scale would have made them practical for replicating in reliefs, full statues, and painted scenes across Akhetaten. In particular, the fine modelling of Akhenaten’s lips and Nefertiti’s jawline shows a deliberate effort to work at 1:1 scale, so that artisans could accurately imitate every nuance of expression and proportion. Therefore, they are not miniatures, votives, or symbolic icons, but instead serve as true-to-life portraits that reflect the royal physiognomy, or at least the idealised realism of the Amarna style. Their scale underscores their role as reference masterpieces, rather than as small devotional objects or monumental display sculptures.

“Life‑sized painted bust of the queen, 47 cm high… Colours look freshly painted. Really wonderful work. No use describing it, you have to see it… Counterpart to the bust of the king from p. 39.”
Although these quotes focus on Nefertiti’s bust, Borchardt explicitly references its “counterpart”, confirming that the bust of Akhenaten was already recognised as its companion in the same workshop.

Both the busts of Akhenaten and Nefertiti, found in Thutmose’s Amarna workshop, share a foundational technique; limestone cores with stucco coatings providing a sculptor’s canvas for refined modelling, but their final treatments diverge.

Akhenaten’s portrait was uniquely enhanced with gilding, a luxurious touch that signified its importance among royal sculptures, while Nefertiti’s bust, though richly painted, lacked metal ornamentation.

Summary:

Bust of king Akhenaten (painted limestone with traces of gilding)

New Kingdom, 18th Dynasty, c. 1351–1334 B.C.

From Tel el-Amarna, House P 47.2 (Workshop of Thutmose)

Neues Museum, Berlin. ÄM 21360