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Especially unusual was the nature of the scenes depicted in Amarna art. Earlier pharaohs were typically portrayed in an austere manner, engaging in activities such as official religious duties, hunting, or fighting in battle. The Amarna period is known for depicting Akhenaten and his family in a manner that is markedly intimate and informal by comparison. A famous example is a portrait of the royal family dated to approximately Year 8 of Akhenaten’s reign. The king and queen are seated facing each other and nearly equal in height. Akhenaten raises his daughter Meritaten to his lips, kissing her, and Maketaten and Ankhesenpaaten interact playfully with their mother, one seated in her lap and the other leaning up against her in a relaxed posture. Intimate scenes such as this were virtually unknown in Egyptian art up until this time.<ref>Davis, Whitney. “Two Compositional Tendencies in Amarna Relief”. <i>American Journal of Archaeology</i> 82.3 (1978): 388 Web. 05 November 2015</ref>. It is not known why Akhenaten required that he and his family be portrayed in this way, but the result would have been surprising to his contemporaries.

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