Bek or Bak (

Egyptian ''Egyptian'' describes something of, from, or related to Egypt. Egyptian or Egyptians may refer to: Nations and ethnic groups * Egyptians, a national group in North Africa ** Egyptian culture, a complex and stable culture with thousands of year ...

for "Servant") was the first chief royal sculptor during the reign of Pharaoh

Akhenaten Akhenaten (pronounced ), also spelled Akhenaton or Echnaton ( ''ʾŪḫə-nə-yātəy'', , meaning 'Effective for the Aten'), was an ancient Egyptian pharaoh reigning or 1351–1334 BC, the tenth ruler of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt, Eig ...

. His father Men held the same position under Akhenaten's father

Amenhotep III Amenhotep III ( , ; "Amun is satisfied"), also known as Amenhotep the Magnificent or Amenhotep the Great and Hellenization, Hellenized as Amenophis III, was the ninth pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt, Eighteenth Dynasty. According to d ...

; his mother Roi was a woman from Heliopolis. Bek grew up in Heliopolis, an important cult centre of the sun god Ra. The young prince Amenhotep (who became the pharaoh Akhenaten) had a palace here, and it is likely that his religious views were formed in part by the Heliopolitan teachings. Bek followed his lord to Akhet-Aten, the city founded by Akhenaten. He oversaw the construction of the great temple statues of the king and the opening of the

Aswan Aswan (, also ; ) is a city in Southern Egypt, and is the capital of the Aswan Governorate. Aswan is a busy market and tourist centre located just north of the Aswan Dam on the east bank of the Nile at the first cataract. The modern city ha ...

and Gebel es-Silsila stone quarries, from where the stone was transported. A

stela A stele ( ) or stela ( )The plural in English is sometimes stelai ( ) based on direct transliteration of the Greek, sometimes stelae or stelæ ( ) based on the inflection of Greek nouns in Latin, and sometimes anglicized to steles ( ) or stela ...

found in Aswan, made around the 9th regnal year of Akhenaten shows Men and his son Bek with the pharaohs they serve. On the right side Men stands before the statue of Amenhotep III. The statue is very likely to be one of the colossi of the pharaoh that was made by Men. This side of the stela reflects the traditional artistic style of the 18th Dynasty, and the only indication of the Amarna Period is that the name "Amenhotep" is left out, instead of it the pharaoh's throne name "Nebmaatre" is repeated, in order to avoid having to mention the god

Amun Amun was a major ancient Egyptian deity who appears as a member of the Hermopolitan Ogdoad. Amun was attested from the Old Kingdom together with his wife Amunet. His oracle in Siwa Oasis, located in Western Egypt near the Libyan Desert, r ...

whose cult was forbidden. On the left side of the stela Bek is shown before Akhenaten, who makes offerings to his god

Aten Aten, also Aton, Atonu, or Itn (, reconstructed ) was the focus of Atenism, the religious system formally established in ancient Egypt by the late Eighteenth Dynasty pharaoh Akhenaten. Exact dating for the Eighteenth Dynasty is contested, thou ...

; according to the inscription the depicted scene is set in the

Great Temple of the Aten The Great Temple of the Aten (or the ''pr-Jtn'', House of the Aten)Barbara Watterson, Amarna: Ancient Egypt’s Age of Revolution (Charleston, SC: Tempus Publishing, 1999), 69-72. was a temple located in the city of el-Amarna (ancient Akhetaten), ...

. A typical feature of Amarna era pictures, the rays of Aten end in hands. Aten's and Akhenaten's name was later chiseled out.Aldred, op.cit., p.93 On the stela Bek states that he is "the apprentice whom His Majesty taught". It is likely that he oversaw the making of the statues which show Akhenaten and his family in an overly naturalistic style, breaking with the idealised depiction that tradition demanded.Aldred, p.94 A stela (now in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

) shows Bek with his wife Taheret. This is possibly the first self-portrait in history. The inscription of this stela also mentions him being taught by Akhenaten. A drawing of Akhenaten, which depicts the pharaoh and Aten and is likely to have been made in the early years of his reign, is possibly Bek's work. This picture shows Aten with a falcon-headed man, which was an attribute of Ra. Some other sculptors of the Amarna Period are also known by name, including

Thutmose Thutmose (; also rendered Thutmoses, Thutmosis, Tuthmose, Tutmosis, Thothmes, Tuthmosis, Thutmes, Dhutmose, Djhutmose, Djehutymes, etc.) is an anglicization of the ancient Egyptian personal name ''dhwty-ms'', usually translated as "Born of the god ...

and Yuti, sculptor of Queen

Tiye Tiye (c. 1398 BC – 1338 BC, also spelled Tye, Taia, Tiy and Tiyi) was the Great Royal Wife of the Egyptian pharaoh Amenhotep III, mother of pharaoh Akhenaten and grandmother of pharaoh Tutankhamun; her parents were Yuya and Thuya. In 2010 ...

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{{authority control Ancient Egyptian sculptors People of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt 14th-century BC Egyptian people