Fragment of a polychrome tomb-painting depicting four estate workers bringing produce, barley, vegetables, a young deer and hares, from the fields, Height: 41 centimetres (max).
Rectangular fragment (one of three) of a polychrome tomb-painting representing a banquet scene, divided into two registers: upper, three seated couples are attended by serving women and boys; lower, a group of women, seated apart from the men, are attended by a standing serving woman, Height: 76 centimetres (max), Width: 126 centimetres (painting only).
Painting from the tomb chapel of Nebamen: fragment of polychrome tomb-painting divided into two registers. In the upper register a herd of cattle is brought to Nebamen; in front of the cattle the herdsmen bow down to a standing scribe who records the produce. The vertical hieroglyphic caption is damaged, and only a few-phrases can be read. In the lower register a man drives cattle towards some seated scribes. Two horizontal registers of hieroglyphs survive above, Inscription Translation: Come on! Move off! Don't speak in front of this favoured one (Nebamen). People who talk are his horror! He does what is true; he will not pass over any complaint. Pass on (?) quietly, truly! He will not just do the bidding of people, he knows everything, does the Scribe and Counter of Grain of [Amun] Neb[amen]!, Height: 58.5 centimetres (max), Width: 97 centimetres (painting only), Width: 106 centimetres (whole fragment).
Wooden toy cat from Thebes, Egypt, New Kingdom (1550-1070 BC), Moving jaws and bronze teeth.
Glass bottle in the form of a fish from el-Amarna, Egypt 18th Dynasty, around 1390-1336 BC, Length: 14.500 cm.
Fragment of a polychrome tomb-painting representing Nebamun seated (probably associated with the goose census scene from the same tomb) with remains of five vertical registers of polychrome-painted hieroglyphs, Length: 73 centimetres, Width: 54 centimetres, Height: 67.5 centimetres (painting only).
Fragment of a polychrome tomb-painting representing funerary offerings and with four vertical registers of polychrome painted hieroglyphs surviving, Length: 104.2 centimetres, Width: 61 centimetres. |
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The British Museum
Great Russell Street
+44 (0)20 7323 8000
London
Room 61
Ancient Egyptian Life and Death
Opens 21 January 2009
The new Ancient Egyptian gallery, centred round the spectacular painted tomb-chapel of Nebamun, contains paintings that are some of the most famous images of Egyptian art, and come from the now lost tomb-chapel of Nebamun, an accountant in the Temple of Amun at Karnak who died c. 1350 BC, a generation or so before Tutankhamun. They show him at work and at leisure — surveying his estates and hunting in the marshes. An extensive conservation project — the largest in the Museum’s history — has been undertaken on the eleven large fragments which will go on public display for the first time in nearly ten years.
The tomb-paintings were acquired by the Museum in the 1820s and were constantly on display until the late 1990s. Since then, the fragile wall-paintings have been meticulously conserved, securing them for at least the next 50 years. The project has provided numerous new insights into the superb technique of the painters called by one art-historian "antiquity’s equivalent to Michelangelo" — with their exuberant compositions, astonishing depictions of animal life and unparalleled handling of textures. New research and scholarship have enabled new joins to be made between the fragments, allowing a better understanding of their original locations in the tomb. They will now be re-displayed together for the first time in a setting designed to recreate their original aesthetic impact and to evoke their original position in a small intimate chapel. The gallery will include another fragment for the same tomb-chapel on loan from the Egyptian Museum, Berlin. Drawing on the latest research and fieldwork at Luxor, a computer ‘walk-through’ of the reconstructed tomb-chapel will be available in gallery with an interactive version online.
The fragments were discovered by the local agent of Henry Salt in Thebes in 1820. The location of the tomb from which they came is still not known with any certainty, but it is thought to be in the northern part of the necropolis in the area known as Dra Abu el-Naga. Stylistically, the magnificent wall paintings can be dated to either the final years of the reign of Amenhotep III (1390-1352 BC) or the early years of his successor.
The paintings show scenes of daily life and include images of banquets, agriculture, animal husbandry, hunting and scenes of offerings. The quality of the drawing and composition is outstanding, and the superbly detailed treatment of the animals makes these some of the finest paintings to survive from ancient Egypt.
The fragments are keenly observed vignettes of Nebamun and his family enjoying both work and play. Some concern the provision of the funerary cult that was celebrated in the tomb-chapel, some show scenes of Nebamun’s life as an elite official, and others show him and his family enjoying life for all eternity, as in the famous scene of the family hunting in the marshes. Together they decorated the small tomb-chapel with vibrant and engaging images of an elite lifestyle that Nebamun hoped would continue in the afterlife.
Next to the paintings, 150 artefacts show how the tomb-chapel was built, how it remained open for visitors, and also the nature of Egyptian society at the time. Most of the objects are contemporary with Nebamun and reflect those depicted in his paintings. Some, however, contrast with the idealised world-view that is shown on elite monuments like the tomb-chapel and show that most people’s experience of life was not necessarily all about leisure and prestige as in the paintings. Spectacularly luxurious objects, such as a glass perfume bottle in the shape of a fish, are juxtaposed with crude tools of basic survival, such as a fishing net, to suggest that most of what we know of Ancient Egypt is about the small wealthy elite.
The wall paintings from Nebamun's tomb-chapel show an idealised vision of daily ancient Egyptian life. The objects on display in Room 61, which are from the same time period, hint at the actual experience of living in Egypt for both the rich and poor.
Many of the objects in this gallery belonged to the wealthy and survived only because they were buried in tombs. They provide a glimpse of these people’s lavish lifestyles.
Much less is known about the lives of the majority of society. The study of human remains in poor cemeteries is often the only way of learning about the short lives of most ancient Egyptians.
Nebamun himself was buried somewhere beneath the floor of the innermost room of the tomb-chapel in a hidden burial chamber.
The beautiful paintings, which decorated the wall, not only showed how Nebamun wanted his life to be remembered but what he wanted in his life after death.
Building a tomb-chapel was expensive and would have only been done by the wealthy. The majority of ancient Egyptians would have been buried in cemeteries.
Nebamun’s tomb-chapel was cut into the desert hills opposite the city of Thebes (modern Luxor and Karnak).
Workmen would have cut the tomb out of the rock using flint tools and copper-alloy chisels. The walls and ceilings of the tomb were then covered in a layer of mud plaster, followed by a layer of white plaster. This provided a smooth surface for painting.
The tomb-chapel was painted by a team of artists. They first sketched out the designs and figures before painting the final pattern. Sometimes the sketches can still be seen, showing how the artists changed their minds. The artists used black, white, red, yellow, blue and green paints.
The tomb-chapel probably contained three sections: an outer chamber, an inner chamber and an underground burial chamber, which was sealed once Nebamun and his wife had been buried. Outside the tomb-chapel a courtyard was cut into the hillside. The walls of the chapel facade were decorated with rows of pottery cones stamped with the names and titles of the owner.
Tomb-chapels were meeting places between the worlds of the living and the dead. People visited this tomb-chapel to commemorate Nebamun.
Nebamun and his wife would have been buried in a hidden chamber somewhere underneath this chapel. The burial chamber was then sealed but the chapel remained open.
In the innermost room there would have been a statue of Nebamun and his wife. Family members would come on festival days to say prayers and offer food, wine, water and flowers to this statue. Passers-by could also visit the tomb-chapel to say prayers for Nebamun and look at the paintings.
During 2001-2007, the fragments of wall-paintings from Nebamun’s tomb-chapel were extensively conserved.
A piece of dated newspaper found in the 19th century plaster of Paris mount shows that the paintings were originally mounted and displayed in the Museum from 1832. In 1999, the paintings were removed for conservation and research work.
One notable discovery was the gold leaf gilding on the eye of the cat on the Fowling in the Marshes fragment. This is the only known example of gilding on wall paintings in Theban tomb-chapels.
The new display aims to create the sense of the tomb-chapel. Two sets of fragments (of three fragments each) have been rejoined to produce almost two complete scenes from the tomb-chapel. These give the impression of whole walls of colour in the tomb-chapel.
The paintings have also been displayed in new mounts, exposing the back of the fragments so they can be more fully understood as artefacts.
The fragility of the paintings means that they must now be displayed at an angle of 70 degrees.
Conservators, presented with the fragment of wall painting (known as "the Census of Geese") from the tomb of Nebamun, found it mounted on plaster that had been applied in the 19th century. The fragment was encased in a glass fronted box.
Today, plaster would not be used by conservators for this purpose: water vapour in the initial setting process and salt migration from the plaster cause instability in the ground of the painting and the water sensitive paint layer.
The case was detached and the plaster removed down to the lower edge of the original mud-straw backing. An inert support was given to the sides. Fragile, loose paint flakes were consolidated and a yellow coating from an old treatment was taken off with solvents.
After this stabilisation, the front of the fragment was covered with layers of acid free tissue and soft foam. It was then boxed and turned upright to remove the remaining plaster from the back of the fragment. Examination showed tool marks on the mud-straw backing from the tomb wall and a small speck of Egyptian blue pigment.
The mud-straw was consolidated, a separating layer applied and a foaming resin mixture was poured into the back of the box to provide a lightweight, inert support. Finally, when the resin had cured, the box was removed and the painting, now safe, could be put on display.
The gallery is on the upper floor of the Museum next to the galleries of Ancient Egyptian funerary archaeology (the ‘mummy rooms’) that are the most popular galleries in the museum. This gallery will provide a new "must-see" highlight for the Egyptian collections. |
