Artists in ancient Egypt joined workshops and worked in teams to produce what their patrons—the king and the elite—needed. For this reason, few works can be attributed to individuals. Religious beliefs largely dictated what artists created, especially the paintings and statues that filled Egyptian temples and tombs. Artists endlessly repeated the same themes and subjects, changing them only when beliefs changed. (A rare change came around 1350  bc, for example, when the sun god Aton gained more prominence than ever before.) The style of depicting these themes and subjects, by contrast, changed from one generation of artists and patrons to the next. For example, during the 18th dynasty (1550-1307  bc) there was a shift from painting the human figure in a rather stiff and rigid posture to using curved lines and varied poses. But most of the changes were more subtle.