This painted relief of Akhenaten and his family is essentially a family portrait. Just like the millions of people who flock to the Sears portrait studio's or expensive photographers every year at Christmas, Akhenaten wanted a symbol of his families happiness and well being. This portrait could even be considered as a kind of photograph taken during a typical day in the life of this family. Today we value pictures and portraits of ourselves and loved one's because they convey happy, memorable, and important times in our lives. I myself just purchased a digital camera and try to take as many pictures of my daily adventures that I can. Special occasions like graduations and birthday parties are memories that we like to relive over and over again. Even small events such as a day in the park or a picnic on a beach become cherished family memories. I myself lost my dad to cancer almost 7 years ago and if it was not for my photographs I would have nothing, but my memories to remember him by. My precious pictures are something that I will be able to show my children and their children someday. They will be able to put a face with a name when they hear me talk about how much he meant to me. And even when I just sometimes miss hearing his voice or I feel like I can't quite see his face in my mind I am able to pull out one of my many photo albums and not only see his face, but I am able to recall where the picture was taken and what we were doing. The people of the past no matter what era or part of the world they come from seem to have always had a sense of family and the want/need to immortalize the ones they love in paintings, sculptures and pictures. This specific piece of art really stood out to me because it was so real and must have truly meant something to Akhenaten just as my photos mean to me.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
This painted relief of Akhenaten and his family is essentially a family portrait. Just like the millions of people who flock to the Sears portrait studio's or expensive photographers every year at Christmas, Akhenaten wanted a symbol of his families happiness and well being. This portrait could even be considered as a kind of photograph taken during a typical day in the life of this family. Today we value pictures and portraits of ourselves and loved one's because they convey happy, memorable, and important times in our lives. I myself just purchased a digital camera and try to take as many pictures of my daily adventures that I can. Special occasions like graduations and birthday parties are memories that we like to relive over and over again. Even small events such as a day in the park or a picnic on a beach become cherished family memories. I myself lost my dad to cancer almost 7 years ago and if it was not for my photographs I would have nothing, but my memories to remember him by. My precious pictures are something that I will be able to show my children and their children someday. They will be able to put a face with a name when they hear me talk about how much he meant to me. And even when I just sometimes miss hearing his voice or I feel like I can't quite see his face in my mind I am able to pull out one of my many photo albums and not only see his face, but I am able to recall where the picture was taken and what we were doing. The people of the past no matter what era or part of the world they come from seem to have always had a sense of family and the want/need to immortalize the ones they love in paintings, sculptures and pictures. This specific piece of art really stood out to me because it was so real and must have truly meant something to Akhenaten just as my photos mean to me.
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3 comments:
I loved you insights about the sculptures from Ancient Egypt! Probably because I actually drew a very similar conclusion about what I saw. Even though I did my blog on the Statue of Menkaure and a Queen, I see a lot of similarities between the sculptures we see from Egypt, and the photo's we take of ourselves and of our families. I am just glad that we are alive now, because most of us can just go out and buy a camera to solidify our memories. During the Ancient Egyptian times, such lasting images were only available to the very wealthy.
Eeka,
You have such a fresh perspective of the art pieces you choose to write about. We are definitely fortunate to be able to capture memories with a simple click of a camera. When we think about how long an artist back in the old age took to capture an image, we appreciate its meaning and worth much more.
erica-
beautifully related ...the photographer Annie Liebovitz had an exhibit at the Legion this summer -in case you do not know her she is probably teh most famous current day photographer. Every significant individual has had a photo shoot with her so through the exhibit there were hundreds of pictures of world leader, celebrities, athletes, etc., but I found myself most intrigued by her family portraits. Those to me were most precious and I felt there was a difference between teh way she took the family pictures between and the way she took pictures of the Big, Fanous people.
Her lover died of cancer --someone also very famous in Literary Philosophy--and she had many pictures. These pictures help bring our memories to life ...and you are right they take particular importance at moments such as these. thanks for sharing.
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