Brooklyn Museum: Egyptian, Classical, and Ancient Middle Eastern Art: Soldiers in Chariot

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Soldiers in Chariot

Relief carvers working at Akhenaten's capital devised a method of using space to imply movement—a method seen in this relief of a chariot drawn by a pair of horses. Besides raising the animals' forelegs off the ground in the traditional Egyptian convention for representing a gallop, the artisan introduced the novel device of leaving blank the entire left half of the block. The viewer is supposed to understand this space as the area into which the chariot is moving.

Amarna relief carvers seemed to delight in adding unusual details that broke with Egyptian artistic tradition. On this relief, for example, one of the horses turns its head to stare directly at the viewer. In earlier scenes of chariots, horses were always depicted in pure profile.

Medium: Limestone with modern paint
Dates: ca. 1352-1336 B.C.E.
Dynasty: late XVIII Dynasty
Period: New Kingdom
Dimensions: 21 1/16 x 9 x 1 1/4 in. (53.5 x 22.8 x 3.2 cm)
Collections: Egyptian, Classical, and Ancient Middle Eastern Art
Museum Location: This item is on view in Egypt Reborn: Art for Eternity, Amarna Period, Martha A. and Robert S. Rubin Gallery, 3rd Floor
Accession Number: 60.28
Credit Line: Gift of New Hermes Foundation
Image: Overall, 60.28_SL1.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph

Collections: Egyptian, Classical, and Ancient Middle Eastern Art: Soldiers in Chariot