DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4858#0081
THE TOMB OF NAKHT
Careless exe-
cution of the
scenes of
ritual
Consecration
of food to the
use of the
dead
elaborated which had least to do with the life to come. Not only
were the burial rites which should have adorned the walls of the inner
chamber left undisplayed, but the scenes and inscriptions which conse-
crated the food to the service of the dead, and on which his existence or
comfort was supposed to depend, are treated in a way that savors of
contempt. The artist, in short, controls the work and what we have
noted in regard to Plate XII holds good also for the adjacent wall
shown in Plates XIII and XIV, except that here the inscriptions are
merely scribbled in, left half written, or omitted altogether, as if the
artist were at the last point of endurance or of leisure. We have seen
in Plate VIII what the artist could make of these stereotyped scenes,
but when set to repeat the subject on the opposite wall he shows
unmistakable signs of ill-temper and impatience.
The north wall is divided into two scenes which are repetitions
of the same theme. In each case Nakht and Tawi sit on the left
hand before a table of offerings.1 In the upper scene five men
approach with flowers and with mats spread with the means for a
simple repast. Below these, four men advance with jars of fat and
tapers.2 A sem-priest in a leopard's skin performs the rites of conse-
cration with the traditional gesture. The inscription is broken, but
Nakht and Tawi seem to have been described as "receiving offerings
(such as).....[Amonl, head of the sacred places, is overwhelmed
with daily."3
'The hare which is seen among the offerings is a cake in that form. Similarly a calf in Tomb 7/4 and
in Wilkinson, Manners and Customs, II, p. 34-
2The inscriptions over a similar procession in Tomb 82 (Davies-Gardiner, Tomb of Amenemhet, PI.
XXIII) show that on feast days at any rate tapers were lighted and fat provided "that the eye of Horus
may be wakeful" or "to brighten the path of the place of darkness" for the deceased.
Amending to S£tifl/*b^°-----•
A comparison of the flesh-colors assigned to Tawi in this tomb shows how small a part imitation of
nature played in respect of color. On the east wall (Plates XI, XII) her color is a clear yellow painted
streakily in two tones. On the opposite wall (Plate XXV) it is a deep salmon^yellow. Here on one and the
same wall it is a bright orange and a ghastly drab suggestive of a corpse. One would have at least ex-
pected a firmly sustained convention, but apparently the artists were at once conscious of artificiality and
yet in despair of realism. This failure of eye may be due to long inheritance from days of even cruder
color-sense, for in the very finest painting of Khufu's age the most brilliant orange conceivable was adopted
for the male complexion (on the stela of Wepemnofret found at Gizeh by the Hearst Egyptian Expedition of
the University of California).
54
Careless exe-
cution of the
scenes of
ritual
Consecration
of food to the
use of the
dead
elaborated which had least to do with the life to come. Not only
were the burial rites which should have adorned the walls of the inner
chamber left undisplayed, but the scenes and inscriptions which conse-
crated the food to the service of the dead, and on which his existence or
comfort was supposed to depend, are treated in a way that savors of
contempt. The artist, in short, controls the work and what we have
noted in regard to Plate XII holds good also for the adjacent wall
shown in Plates XIII and XIV, except that here the inscriptions are
merely scribbled in, left half written, or omitted altogether, as if the
artist were at the last point of endurance or of leisure. We have seen
in Plate VIII what the artist could make of these stereotyped scenes,
but when set to repeat the subject on the opposite wall he shows
unmistakable signs of ill-temper and impatience.
The north wall is divided into two scenes which are repetitions
of the same theme. In each case Nakht and Tawi sit on the left
hand before a table of offerings.1 In the upper scene five men
approach with flowers and with mats spread with the means for a
simple repast. Below these, four men advance with jars of fat and
tapers.2 A sem-priest in a leopard's skin performs the rites of conse-
cration with the traditional gesture. The inscription is broken, but
Nakht and Tawi seem to have been described as "receiving offerings
(such as).....[Amonl, head of the sacred places, is overwhelmed
with daily."3
'The hare which is seen among the offerings is a cake in that form. Similarly a calf in Tomb 7/4 and
in Wilkinson, Manners and Customs, II, p. 34-
2The inscriptions over a similar procession in Tomb 82 (Davies-Gardiner, Tomb of Amenemhet, PI.
XXIII) show that on feast days at any rate tapers were lighted and fat provided "that the eye of Horus
may be wakeful" or "to brighten the path of the place of darkness" for the deceased.
Amending to S£tifl/*b^°-----•
A comparison of the flesh-colors assigned to Tawi in this tomb shows how small a part imitation of
nature played in respect of color. On the east wall (Plates XI, XII) her color is a clear yellow painted
streakily in two tones. On the opposite wall (Plate XXV) it is a deep salmon^yellow. Here on one and the
same wall it is a bright orange and a ghastly drab suggestive of a corpse. One would have at least ex-
pected a firmly sustained convention, but apparently the artists were at once conscious of artificiality and
yet in despair of realism. This failure of eye may be due to long inheritance from days of even cruder
color-sense, for in the very finest painting of Khufu's age the most brilliant orange conceivable was adopted
for the male complexion (on the stela of Wepemnofret found at Gizeh by the Hearst Egyptian Expedition of
the University of California).
54