Bek or Bak (Egyptian for “Servant”) was the first chief royal sculptor during the reign of king Akhenaten. His father Men held the same position under Akhenaten’s father Amenhotep III; his mother Roi was a woman from Heliopolis. Bek grew up in Heliopolis, an important cult center of Ra.
The stele is itself a very distinctive product, with two figures contained within a naos but carved almost three-dimensionally. If, as would seem very possible, Bek himself carved the stele, this would be the oldest self-portrait known. Bek was succeeded as Chief Sculptor by Thutmose.
New Kingdom, late 18th Dynasty, Amarna Period, reign of Akhenaten, ca. 1353-1336 BC. Now in the Neues Museum, Berlin.
