The Egyptian Pharaoh Akhenaten used art as propaganda to impose a sole god, omnipotent, exclusive and mysterious on a people whose religious traditions were radically different.

In New Kingdom Egypt religion was essentially polytheistic. There was a pantheon of many gods, all with their own mythology,which helped to explain their nature. The Egyptian genius was to reconcile these different deities by syncretism, a system by which gods absorbed other gods.

The king of the gods was the sun-god, Re. But he was more than a sun god. He was the Universe which included all other gods in his being. All the gods were represented in the temples in animal or human form. These images were carefully researched and created by craftsmen.

Akhenaten's revolution did not happen all at once, but eventually it was documented in the Great Hymn to the Aten .There was one sole god, the...