DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4858#0056
THE DECORATION OF THE TOMB
torically, cause and sequence having little interest for him. His rank,
his wealth, his wife, his children, were all in all to him; how and when
marriage and birth, adventure and success came about left little im-
pression on his mind. But if as priest, soldier, administrator, or judge,
he had ever been brought into close contact with the king, this event
bulked large in his memories and was given corresponding importance
in his tomb, the more so as the figure of the king sitting under the
splendid baldachin of state made an imposing decoration. Set on the
back wall, often on both sides of its doorway, these pictures met the
eye of every incomer and formed a gay pendant to the scenes of
worship opposite them.
The love of individuality, and of official rank and personal char-
acter as elements in it, have been noted already. It finds expression
in the memorial stela which is often found at one or both ends of the
outer chamber, carved in the rock or painted on plaster. The aim is
not biography but characterization; partly of the man as he was or
was supposed to be, partly of the typical official and the perfect
courtier. It is a picture of the inner man which is to be added to the
personal portraits that abound in every tomb, and is often, like them,
redundant.1
The strength with which love of family survived death is witnessed
to by the family groups painted on nearly every wall and sometimes
reproduced even by life-size statues. So intense is this feeling that
in the pictures the man is not parted from his wife or children or
from the family pets even when as sportsman he is on the point of
striking down his prey. The long rows of relatives who partake of
the feast bear witness that his affections were not confined. And
truly if this happy creed was boldly held, delightful reunions could be
pictured as, one by one, members of the family crossed the thin
boundary that severed life from death, the metropolis from the ne-
cropolis. The thought comes at least once to expression in an early
tomb where a son chose a place of burial in his father's grave in the
^here are five inscribed "false doors" and three biographical stelae in Tomb 3g.
2Q
They also
reflect the
memories of
the dead
His self-
esteem
His love of
family
torically, cause and sequence having little interest for him. His rank,
his wealth, his wife, his children, were all in all to him; how and when
marriage and birth, adventure and success came about left little im-
pression on his mind. But if as priest, soldier, administrator, or judge,
he had ever been brought into close contact with the king, this event
bulked large in his memories and was given corresponding importance
in his tomb, the more so as the figure of the king sitting under the
splendid baldachin of state made an imposing decoration. Set on the
back wall, often on both sides of its doorway, these pictures met the
eye of every incomer and formed a gay pendant to the scenes of
worship opposite them.
The love of individuality, and of official rank and personal char-
acter as elements in it, have been noted already. It finds expression
in the memorial stela which is often found at one or both ends of the
outer chamber, carved in the rock or painted on plaster. The aim is
not biography but characterization; partly of the man as he was or
was supposed to be, partly of the typical official and the perfect
courtier. It is a picture of the inner man which is to be added to the
personal portraits that abound in every tomb, and is often, like them,
redundant.1
The strength with which love of family survived death is witnessed
to by the family groups painted on nearly every wall and sometimes
reproduced even by life-size statues. So intense is this feeling that
in the pictures the man is not parted from his wife or children or
from the family pets even when as sportsman he is on the point of
striking down his prey. The long rows of relatives who partake of
the feast bear witness that his affections were not confined. And
truly if this happy creed was boldly held, delightful reunions could be
pictured as, one by one, members of the family crossed the thin
boundary that severed life from death, the metropolis from the ne-
cropolis. The thought comes at least once to expression in an early
tomb where a son chose a place of burial in his father's grave in the
^here are five inscribed "false doors" and three biographical stelae in Tomb 3g.
2Q
They also
reflect the
memories of
the dead
His self-
esteem
His love of
family