DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4393#0420
402 A THOUSAND MILES UP THE NILE.
of Eameses III, though not nearly so beautiful as the tomb
of Seti I, is perhaps the most curious of all. The paint-
ings here are for the most part designed on an unsculpt-
nred surface coated with white stucco. The drawing is
often indifferent, and the coloring is uniformly coarse and
gaudy. Yellow abounds; and crude reds and blues remind
us of the colored picture-books of our childhood. It is
difficult to understand, indeed, how the builder of Medinet
llabu, with the best Egyptian art of the day at his com-
mand, should have been content with such wall-paintings
as these.
Still Eameses III seems to have had a grand idea of
going in state to the next world, with his retainers around
him. In a series of small ante-chambers opening off from
the first corridor we see depicted all the household fur-
niture, all the plate, the weapons, the wealth and treasure
of the king. Upon the walls of one the cooks and bakers
are seen preparing the royal dinner. In the others are
depicted magnificent thrones ; gilded galleys with party-
colored sails; gold and silver vases; rich stores of arms and
armor; piles of precious woods, of panther skins, of fruits
and birds and curious baskets, and all such articles of per-
sonal luxury as a palace-building Pharaoh might delight
in. Here, also, are the two famous harpers; cruelly
defaced, but still sweeping the strings with the old power-
fid touch that erewhile soothed the king in his hours of
melancholy. These two spirited figures—which are un-
doubtedly portraits*—almost redeem the poverty of the
rest of the paintings.
In many tombs the empty sarcophagus yet occupies its
ancient place.f We saw one in No. 'Z (Barneses IV), and
*When first seen by Sir G. Wilkinson, these harpers were still in
such good preservation that lie reported of one, at least, if not both,
as obviously blind. The harps are magnificent, richly inlaid and
gilded, and adorned with busts of the king. One lias eleven strings,
the other fourteen.
f The sarcophagus of Seti I, which was brought to England by
Belzoni, is in Sir J. Soane'S Museum. It is carved from a single
block of the finest alabaster, and is covered with incised hieroglyphic
texts and several hundred figures, descriptive of the passage of the
sun through the hours of the night. See " Le Sarcophage de Seti I."
P. Pierret. " Revue Arch.," vol, xxi, p. 885: 1870. The sarcoph-
agus of Kameses III is in the Fitz-William Museum, Cambridge,
and the lid thereof is in the Egyptian collection of the Louvre, (See
of Eameses III, though not nearly so beautiful as the tomb
of Seti I, is perhaps the most curious of all. The paint-
ings here are for the most part designed on an unsculpt-
nred surface coated with white stucco. The drawing is
often indifferent, and the coloring is uniformly coarse and
gaudy. Yellow abounds; and crude reds and blues remind
us of the colored picture-books of our childhood. It is
difficult to understand, indeed, how the builder of Medinet
llabu, with the best Egyptian art of the day at his com-
mand, should have been content with such wall-paintings
as these.
Still Eameses III seems to have had a grand idea of
going in state to the next world, with his retainers around
him. In a series of small ante-chambers opening off from
the first corridor we see depicted all the household fur-
niture, all the plate, the weapons, the wealth and treasure
of the king. Upon the walls of one the cooks and bakers
are seen preparing the royal dinner. In the others are
depicted magnificent thrones ; gilded galleys with party-
colored sails; gold and silver vases; rich stores of arms and
armor; piles of precious woods, of panther skins, of fruits
and birds and curious baskets, and all such articles of per-
sonal luxury as a palace-building Pharaoh might delight
in. Here, also, are the two famous harpers; cruelly
defaced, but still sweeping the strings with the old power-
fid touch that erewhile soothed the king in his hours of
melancholy. These two spirited figures—which are un-
doubtedly portraits*—almost redeem the poverty of the
rest of the paintings.
In many tombs the empty sarcophagus yet occupies its
ancient place.f We saw one in No. 'Z (Barneses IV), and
*When first seen by Sir G. Wilkinson, these harpers were still in
such good preservation that lie reported of one, at least, if not both,
as obviously blind. The harps are magnificent, richly inlaid and
gilded, and adorned with busts of the king. One lias eleven strings,
the other fourteen.
f The sarcophagus of Seti I, which was brought to England by
Belzoni, is in Sir J. Soane'S Museum. It is carved from a single
block of the finest alabaster, and is covered with incised hieroglyphic
texts and several hundred figures, descriptive of the passage of the
sun through the hours of the night. See " Le Sarcophage de Seti I."
P. Pierret. " Revue Arch.," vol, xxi, p. 885: 1870. The sarcoph-
agus of Kameses III is in the Fitz-William Museum, Cambridge,
and the lid thereof is in the Egyptian collection of the Louvre, (See