DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.27180#0251
DER-EL-B AHRI
his wall and his room. Thus you willingly let the animal
mythology pass. The same vermilion recurs in the tight-
fitting robe of the very distinguished-looking lady, whose
flesh is yellow and whose headdress is bluish red. It must
have been a wonderful period for clothes, equal to that
moment in the Middle Kingdom when the Egyptian
Laliques invented jewelry for Princess Khnumuit. This
picture to the right of the door had a pendant on the left
which was once similar in composition and colour but is now,
alas, grievously damaged. The other walls were arranged in
the same way. Great seated figures in beautiful colours to
right and left of the door, and still-life arranged on shelves
as ritual offerings. It is not surprising that such an arrange-
ment should one day become the regular archaistic conven-
tion for this kind of picture.
Then comes the hall in which the birth of the Queen is
recounted. The ceiling is not supported by columns, but
by eleven pairs of square pillars; and each pillar is adorned
with a composition of two figures, mainly in yellow and very
bright pink, a reduction of the otherwise extensive palette
and likewise a reduction of the graphic form. The main wall
again shows the rich scale of colours.
The corresponding hall on the other side of the slope is
treated as a pendant: the same pillars again, for the most part
reconstructed, and the same colour-scheme, except for
borders which consist merely of a narrow red and a broader
yellow stripe. In such details one feels an irresistible and
quite modern taste. On the walls are amusing pictures of
the expedition to the land of Punt and its dealings with the
people of Punt. On one pair of scales three cows, tightly
packed together, are weighed against gold ingots. The
humorous side of bartering was not lost upon the artist.
The three chapels of Hathor are the best preserved.
Here is the final heightening of the colour: a great deal of
red and blue in strictly symmetrical pictures. In the second
227
his wall and his room. Thus you willingly let the animal
mythology pass. The same vermilion recurs in the tight-
fitting robe of the very distinguished-looking lady, whose
flesh is yellow and whose headdress is bluish red. It must
have been a wonderful period for clothes, equal to that
moment in the Middle Kingdom when the Egyptian
Laliques invented jewelry for Princess Khnumuit. This
picture to the right of the door had a pendant on the left
which was once similar in composition and colour but is now,
alas, grievously damaged. The other walls were arranged in
the same way. Great seated figures in beautiful colours to
right and left of the door, and still-life arranged on shelves
as ritual offerings. It is not surprising that such an arrange-
ment should one day become the regular archaistic conven-
tion for this kind of picture.
Then comes the hall in which the birth of the Queen is
recounted. The ceiling is not supported by columns, but
by eleven pairs of square pillars; and each pillar is adorned
with a composition of two figures, mainly in yellow and very
bright pink, a reduction of the otherwise extensive palette
and likewise a reduction of the graphic form. The main wall
again shows the rich scale of colours.
The corresponding hall on the other side of the slope is
treated as a pendant: the same pillars again, for the most part
reconstructed, and the same colour-scheme, except for
borders which consist merely of a narrow red and a broader
yellow stripe. In such details one feels an irresistible and
quite modern taste. On the walls are amusing pictures of
the expedition to the land of Punt and its dealings with the
people of Punt. On one pair of scales three cows, tightly
packed together, are weighed against gold ingots. The
humorous side of bartering was not lost upon the artist.
The three chapels of Hathor are the best preserved.
Here is the final heightening of the colour: a great deal of
red and blue in strictly symmetrical pictures. In the second
227