THE SUN ALSO RISES LACMA EXHIBIT BRINGS PHARAOHS TO LIFE.

Byline: Reed Johnson Staff Writer

King Zoser built bigger pyramids. King Tutankhamen draws larger crowds, and even got a hit '70s pop song by Steve Martin in his honor.

But when historians and archeologists are asked to consider which pharaoh made the greatest cultural impact on ancient Egypt, they often point to a pot-bellied, strangely androgynous-looking man who revolutionized art and religion some 3,500 years ago.

He was Akhenaten, a stylistic and spiritual radical who assumed Egypt's throne at the height of its imperial power, and during the course of his 17-year reign flipped a thousand years' worth of tradition on its head. Before Akhenaten ancient Egypt barely ever seemed to change at all. After him it was never quite the same.

This startling shift takes centerstage in ``Pharaohs of the Sun: Akhenaten, Nerfertiti, Tutankhamen,'' the Egyptology exhibition opening today at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Organized by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, ``Pharaohs of the Sun'' utilizes more than 250 objects, some never seen outside of Cairo before, to evoke one of the most dramatic periods of transformation in the whole history of Western art.

Before Akhenaten's rule (1353-1336 B.C.), Egyptian art, like Egyptian society in general, was conservative and tradition-bound to the point of being static. Life revolved around the concept of Ma-at, a continuum of truth and balance, personified as a female deity.

The pharaohs, claiming godlike authority over their subjects, directed an orderly world closely tied to the seasonal bounty of the Nile River. Egypt's many gods were assigned to elaborate hierarchies that included national gods Atum, Ra and Osiris, as well as local and personal gods that governed such rites of passage as childbirth and harvest.

``There was a cycle of life that they tried very hard to preserve,'' says Nancy Thomas, LACMA deputy director of curatorial affairs and curator of Ancient and Islamic Art.

Not surprisingly, art reinforced and reflected the rigid codes that governed virtually every aspect of life. For centuries, the pharaohs were depicted in sculpture and carvings in the same venerable poses, their muscular physiques as geometric and idealized as those of a Marvel Comics hero.

But when Akhenaten came to power as Amenhotep IV, succeeding his father Amenhotep III, a new art took hold of the ancient kingdom. Amenhotep IV instructed his court craftsmen to render him as a softer, feminized figure, with a slender torso, elongated head, swollen hips and a protruding stomach. The effect was so pronounced that art historians are still debating whether one colossal statue of Amenhotep IV/Akhenaten actually represents his elegant queen, Nefertiti.

Generations of scholars have pondered whether this new pharaonic image had its basis in propaganda, a genetic mutation such as Marfan syndrome, or simple heredity.

``I think there was some basis in the family physiognomy and that (Amenhotep IV) may have had a long face and slightly elongated skull, and that he chose to accentuate those features for dramatic effect,'' says Thomas. ``I think what he was trying to do was capture the attention and the imagination of the people at that time that there was a change (occurring).''

As his reign progressed, Amenhotep IV's religious beliefs shook up the ancient status quo even more profoundly than his artistic preferences. Bucking the powerful priesthood class, the pharaoh began to ignore Egypt's vast pantheon of anthropomorphic dieties and devote himself entirely to Aten, the sun god.

Proclaiming himself to be Aten's only son and intermediary on earth, he raised giant temples to Aten in the Karnak precinct of Thebes, the kingdom's religious capital, while neglecting and even desecrating temples devoted to the popular national god Amen. He also changed his name from Amenhotep to Akhenaten, meaning ``He who is effective for Aten.''

As the ideological rupture between the pharaoh and the Amen priesthood widened, Akhenaten resolved to establish a new religious capital in a remote, previously unsettled territory midway between Memphis and Thebes along a wide bay of cliffs, near the present-day Arab village of Armana, or Tell el-Amarna. With a population believed to have peaked at 20,000 to 50,000, the new city of Akhenaten (``Horizon of Aten'') was a dynamic, brilliantly colored environment with lush formal gardens, spectacular palaces and a thriving community of artisans. Its temples were open to the sky, permitting free entry to the divine sun.

Akhenaten also made himself open and visible, making daily forays through the city to greet his subjects and assert his authority. While Akhenaten worshipped Aten directly, his people were compelled to worship Akhenaten.

The so-called Amarna style was characterized by what LACMA's Thomas terms a general ``turning inward'' of Egyptian society, dictated by the pharaoh's personal example. Whereas his royal predecessors were preoccupied with maintaining Egypt's sprawling empire, stretching from the Sudan to northern Syria, Akhenaten turned his attention to the domestic sphere.

Many works in the exhibition indicate this new emphasis on daily life and nature. Among the most significant is a limestone stela, or relief carving, of Akhenaten and Nefertiti kissing and playing affectionately with their three children - an image unimaginable under previous pharaohs. Under Akhenaten, Egyptian art attained a new sensuality and ecstatic quality. It is visible in such exhibition artifacts as a mustard-colored jasper fragment of a woman's face, its gouged surface somehow enhancing the delicate beauty of the curved lips and chin.

After Akhenaten's death, a period of turmoil may have followed until the boy king Tutankhaten (later Tutankhamen) seized the throne at age 10, probably with the help of the Amen priests. The old gods were restored and the royal court was moved back to Memphis and Thebes. Amarna was destroyed and its precious contents buried and scattered.

But Akhenaten's influence was not so easily dispelled. It endured thereafter in a certain sculptural fleshiness, a willingness to depict human beings in their less-than-godlike humanity that later captivated the Greeks and Romans.

And it persists in the sensual faces on view at LACMA, staring back across a gulf of three millennia.

THE FACTS

--What: ``Pharaohs of the Sun: Akhenaten, Nefertiti, Tutankhamen''

--Where: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 5905 Wilshire Blvd.

--When: Today through June 4. Museum hours are noon to 8 p.m. Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays; noon to 9 p.m. Fridays; 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays; closed Wednesdays.

--Admission: This is a ticketed exhibition requiring an additional admission fee. Tickets: adults, $12.50 weekdays, $15 weekends; seniors and students 18 and older, $10 weekdays, $12 weekends; children $5 every day; children 5 and under free. LACMA members receive two free tickets and will enter the exhibition through a special line. Call [phone].

CAPTION(S):

6 photos, map

Photo:

(1 -- color) ``General Horemheb as a scribe,'' possibly from Memphis, Dynasty 18, under the reign of Tutankhamen, 1332-1322 B.C.

(2 -- color) ``Stela of the royal family,'' 1353-1336 B.C.

(3 -- color) ``Akhenaten as a sphinx ''(facing left), probably from Amarna, Dynasty 18, reign of Akhenaten, 1353-1336 B.C.

(4 -- color) ``Youthful Nefertiti,'' 1353-1336 B.C.

(5 -- color) Canopic jar and lid, Thebes, Valley of the Kings, 1353-1336 B.C.

(6 -- color) ``Maya and Meryt,'' Saqqara, Dynasty 18, reign of Horemheb, 1319-1292 B.C.

Map: EGYPT AND WEST ASIA DURING THE AMARNA PERIOD