The "Stela" was made around 1350 BCE, during the amarna period, and depicts Akhenaten, who initiated monotheism in Egypt, and his consort Nerfiti, in a limestone relief carving. The "Stela" represents the pharaoh and his family in a naturalistic manner that breaks from the traditional Egyptian stylization. The royal couple hold their three babies underneath the sun in a garden setting. The lines of the carving are more fluid, and

So valuable that it has never been permitted to leave Egypt, the Palette of King Narmer establishes both visual and iconographic conventions that will guide Egyptian art for centuries (Calvert, n.d.). The iconography on the Palette of King Narmer can be found in Egyptian art for the next several millennia, including the way the entire scene is depicted, and the specific elements and subjects like the headdresses and royal regalia.

If anything, the style of Akhenaton would tend to emphasize positive features, and perhaps even idealize the figure. The change in style may be attributed to Akhenaton's introduction of monotheism into Egypt. Ahten, the one God into which all other Egyptian deities were formed, was usually portrayed as a sun figure. In keeping with Ahten's supremacy and the tendency of Egyptian monarchs to affiliate them with the prevailing deity,

C.E.), a large underground chamber with massive capitals supporting a slanting and beamed ceiling. In tombs like this and in many others, the walls were usually covered with paintings in the form of murals, mostly drawn from Greek legends. Most of the time, these murals provide scenes of banquets, feasts and revelry, such as in the Tomb of the Leopards in Tarquinia, Italy. This tomb is decorated with a banquet

The Mayans, the Itzcouatl, Tepanecas, the Aztecs of Tenochtitlan were warring civilizations, intolerable of encroachment (Spinden, p. 209). The latter three groups formed defensive alliances, and divided their spoils of war (Spinden, p. 209). Spanish historians often liken Tenochtitlan to the seat of an empire and speak of the ruler as one who had the power of an absolute monarch while other and more recent writers have declared that the

Ancient Near Eastern art is easily distinguishable and recognizable because of its consistent use of various techniques including the hieratic scale, composite view, static visuals, frontality, and overall stylized effects. These elements serve practical and symbolic functions, allowing the artists to tell stories about the subjects they depict. Moreover, these characteristics enabled the anonymous artists to consistently reproduce the work of their predecessors to convey a consistent visual style that