Relief of a Sphinx

myminifactory

This statue is part of a pair standing guard in front of a temple entrance. The sphinx on it sits atop a pedestal, indicating that it is supposed to be a sculpture. A similar pair of statues at the entrance of a small temple would have reminded people of the grand processions of sphinxes found at the larger Egyptian temples. Here the sphinx has human arms and hands so he can make offerings to his god, the sun disk Aten, who appears on the top left side. Akhenaten's changes in how pharaohs were shown in art marked a big shift away from the idealized images used by his predecessors. Even though the king's face is badly damaged, you can still see that it has his distinctive slanted eyes, long nose, hollow cheeks, drooping lower lip and sagging chin.