Mural painting fragment
Category
Archaeological material
Date
1425 BC - 1375 BC
Materials
Paint, Plaster
Measurements
530 mm (H)1380 mm (W)325 mm (H)1435 mm (W)600 mm (D)
Order this imageCollection
Kingston Lacy Estate, Dorset
NT 1257257
Summary
Wall painting fragment of a tomb wall painting showing 'A lively group of lady musicians', with a variety of stringed instruments, double pipes and a percusssion instrument, together with a priest making a libation. All accompanying the presentation of offerings to the deceased tomb-owner. In glazed case. (One of?) four fragments from unindentified tomb dated 1425-1375BC in the great necropolis which served the important cult and administrative centre of Thebes in Upper Egypt. The paintings are executed in tempera-technique in which the pigments used were based on mineral materials which are for the most part non-figutive. The base is a fine gesso plaster floated over a thick Nile-mud backing which was applied directly to the walls of the excavated tomb-chapel. The scenes found in a typical 18th-Dynasty tomb at Thebes, are all of ritual significance, but some seem simply to depict secular scenes of events and activities in which the deceased tomb-owner would hope to participate in his after-life. Among such scenes are representations of banquets and entertainments with much eating and drinking, and musical interludes including dancing. The fragments unfortunately lack inscriptions and there is no possibility of identifying the owner of the tomb.