DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4860#0070
THE TOMB OF APY
The picture of Apy's home (Plate XXIX)1 is more attractive by
far than other presentations of houses, where the stiffly symmetrical
arrangement of the scene is apt to detract from its pleasantness. The
substitution of a natural for an artificial point of view, and the more
realistic treatment of the figures and foliage, so limit the orderliness
here that it only retains the charm of a decorative handling of a scene
that in nature would be confused and unbalanced. In short, it is an
artistic creation instead of a quaint diagram. Placed on this wall, where
all else seems to have been in the usual style of a disjointed narrative,
it must have shone like a jewel. Men would not be wanting in its day
to whom it was a blot on an irreproachable composition, but to us it is
like a European melody heard through the monotonous drone of a fel-
lah's flute. It is a matter for deep regret that the few men who were
privileged to see this wall intact, or nearly so, were incapable of so
appreciating it as to try to preserve for posterity these paintings in
which the aesthetic sense of man triumphs for a moment in the midst of
the primeval struggle for existence on earth and afterwards.
The house or pavilion which forms the center of the picture differs
from other pictures of Egyptian dwellings that have been preserved, in
that it is given a front, instead of a side, view or an aspect based on
1 Scheil, Mem. miss, francaise, V, Tombeau d'Apoui, PI. I. PI. XXVIII again needs more than a word
of apology, since it presumes to offer itself as an alternative record of a lost picture. But I am convinced that
it is nearer the original in some important points of coloring than Legrain's copy, as published. Exactitude in
detail is so far from being assured, that the line drawing on PI. XXVIII differs from, the colored plate in several
instances, as I have transferred to the latter some extant fragments which fit fairly enough there also. The two
main errors which made a repainting of Legrain's copy desirable were the wrong tone of the background and the
false form and color of the papyrus, which fragments show to have been a naturalistic, instead of a very con-
ventional, element in the picture. I have also ventured to give vertical lines to the door and to the walls of the
house. I know no justification for the absurdity of a splayed door-frame, and have observed the inveterate
tendency, even of good copyists, to give a slope to perpendicular architectural lines. But, as a tiny length of
line preserved seems to be that of the outer wall, and hints at a batter, I have retained it on PL XXVIII. A
yellow tinge has been given to the flower of the broad-leaved shrub, in harmony with Tomb i, and a base line
has been supplied under the steps. If the trees were here treated like others in the tomb by having the body
of their foliage painted blue, it would greatly change their aspect. I have little doubt that this was so, especially
as the somewhat large fragment which I have inserted in the pomegranate tree on PI. XXIX shows this feat-
ure. The small pieces which I have assigned to the scene fit fairly well into PI. I of Pere Scheil's edition.
Probably, therefore, it was prepared from rough tracings (a specimen of which, from another part of the wall,
was found in the debris) and from notes of color, instead of directly from the wall. Maspero, in Mem. miss,
francaise, V, p. 169, seems, then, not to have been perfectly informed on this point. The omission of the
horizontal lines on the column in the colored plate is a regrettable inadvertence.
5i
Exceptional
beauty of
the scene
Special
features
The picture of Apy's home (Plate XXIX)1 is more attractive by
far than other presentations of houses, where the stiffly symmetrical
arrangement of the scene is apt to detract from its pleasantness. The
substitution of a natural for an artificial point of view, and the more
realistic treatment of the figures and foliage, so limit the orderliness
here that it only retains the charm of a decorative handling of a scene
that in nature would be confused and unbalanced. In short, it is an
artistic creation instead of a quaint diagram. Placed on this wall, where
all else seems to have been in the usual style of a disjointed narrative,
it must have shone like a jewel. Men would not be wanting in its day
to whom it was a blot on an irreproachable composition, but to us it is
like a European melody heard through the monotonous drone of a fel-
lah's flute. It is a matter for deep regret that the few men who were
privileged to see this wall intact, or nearly so, were incapable of so
appreciating it as to try to preserve for posterity these paintings in
which the aesthetic sense of man triumphs for a moment in the midst of
the primeval struggle for existence on earth and afterwards.
The house or pavilion which forms the center of the picture differs
from other pictures of Egyptian dwellings that have been preserved, in
that it is given a front, instead of a side, view or an aspect based on
1 Scheil, Mem. miss, francaise, V, Tombeau d'Apoui, PI. I. PI. XXVIII again needs more than a word
of apology, since it presumes to offer itself as an alternative record of a lost picture. But I am convinced that
it is nearer the original in some important points of coloring than Legrain's copy, as published. Exactitude in
detail is so far from being assured, that the line drawing on PI. XXVIII differs from, the colored plate in several
instances, as I have transferred to the latter some extant fragments which fit fairly enough there also. The two
main errors which made a repainting of Legrain's copy desirable were the wrong tone of the background and the
false form and color of the papyrus, which fragments show to have been a naturalistic, instead of a very con-
ventional, element in the picture. I have also ventured to give vertical lines to the door and to the walls of the
house. I know no justification for the absurdity of a splayed door-frame, and have observed the inveterate
tendency, even of good copyists, to give a slope to perpendicular architectural lines. But, as a tiny length of
line preserved seems to be that of the outer wall, and hints at a batter, I have retained it on PL XXVIII. A
yellow tinge has been given to the flower of the broad-leaved shrub, in harmony with Tomb i, and a base line
has been supplied under the steps. If the trees were here treated like others in the tomb by having the body
of their foliage painted blue, it would greatly change their aspect. I have little doubt that this was so, especially
as the somewhat large fragment which I have inserted in the pomegranate tree on PI. XXIX shows this feat-
ure. The small pieces which I have assigned to the scene fit fairly well into PI. I of Pere Scheil's edition.
Probably, therefore, it was prepared from rough tracings (a specimen of which, from another part of the wall,
was found in the debris) and from notes of color, instead of directly from the wall. Maspero, in Mem. miss,
francaise, V, p. 169, seems, then, not to have been perfectly informed on this point. The omission of the
horizontal lines on the column in the colored plate is a regrettable inadvertence.
5i
Exceptional
beauty of
the scene
Special
features