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no. László Baán. Museum of Fine Arts. 2012 Cover illustration: Female statue. prepress work and photo editing: Eszter Balder Editorial Coordination: Timea Türk Printed by: EPC Nyomda.Editor: Katalin Anna Kóthay Proof-reading: Adrian Hart Graphic design. inv. Budapest Publisher: Dr.2048 ISBN 978-963-7063-91-6 The publication of this volume was supported by the Hungarian National Culture Fund. 51. General Director Museum of Fine Arts. Budapest. . Budapest.
Skulpturen als Kunsthistorisches Bildmedium Edith Bernhauer 73 Kunst und Gesellschaft in der Libyerzeit. Research on the Reception of Ancient Egyptian Images by Ancient Egyptians Alexis Den Doncker 23 Egyptian Pyramids in an East European Landscape Joachim Śliwa 35 Interaction of Three-dimensional and Two-dimensional Art Helmut Satzinger 45 The ‘Four Schools of Art’ of Senwosret I. Is it Time for a Revision? David Lorand 47 Handmade Terracotta Figurines with Hands Secured behind the Backs. The Potential Use of an Art Historical Method in the Research of Egyptian Minor Arts Máté Petrik 57 Privatplastik im Wandel der Zeiten.5 Contents List of Contributors 7 Foreword 9 Discourses about Works of Art in Ancient and Modern Times Maya Müller 13 Theban Tomb Graffiti during the New Kingdom. Le papyrus dit « érotique » de Turin et la mise à distance des dominés Pascal Vernus 109 „Eine Frage des Geschmacks“ – Anmerkungen zur Grabdekoration auf dem Teti-Friedhof von Saqqara Gabriele Pieke 123 . Beobachtungen an Königsstatuen der Dritten Zwischenzeit Helmut Brandl 79 Stratégie d’épure et stratégie d’appogiature dans les productions dites « artistiques » à l’usage des dominants.
The Changing Context and Connotations of an Iconographic Motif Éva Liptay 169 sS qd wt – The Attestations from the Middle Kingdom and the Second Intermediate Period Danijela Stefanović 185 Tracking Ancient Egyptian Artists. Art and Prestige in Kha’s Funerary Equipment Marcella Trapani 159 ‘The Bull Coming out of the Mountain’. Investigation into an Artistic Creation in its Historical and Sociocultural Context Maruschka Gathy 151 Behind the Mirror. Iconographic Data from the Old Kingdom Vera Vasiljević 139 Theban Tomb Painting during the Reign of Amenhotep II (1427–1400 BC). Zwischenzeit. Zur ihrer Produktion und Verwendung Marc Loth 217 The Gamhud Artisans Katalin Anna Kóthay 235 The Burial Ensemble of Tasenet from Gamhud and the Ptolemaic Coffin style in Northern Middle Egypt Gábor Schreiber 257 Imitation of Materials in Ancient Egypt Manuela Gander 265 Plates 273 . a Problem of Methodology.6 Hierarchy of Women within Elite Families. The Case of the Painters of Private Tombs in the Theban Necropolis during the Eighteenth Dynasty Dimitri Laboury 199 Pour une approche matérielle et expérimentale de la peinture thébaine Hugues Tavier 209 Thebanische Totenstelen der 3.
because of the total lack of any theoretical treatise on aesthetics in Ancient Egyptian literature. the anonymous art par excellence. for some. painters and sculptors’. the Ancient Greeks. 43.3. is not the one art historians or art lovers configured by the western tradition would expect. consequently. for example. and not the one of the object maker. an extraordinary development of what we nowadays agree to call the arts. as well as the many connotations we are accustomed to associating with it. Thus. Ancient Egyptian society never really initiated a process of specific glorification of artists. but. Such preconceived ideas constitute the communis opinio about Ancient Egyptian art and are of course based on misunderstandings and ill-defined concepts. Furthermore. as Jan Assmann emphasized – not without a certain sense of irony – Ancient Egyptian art is by no means anonymous. First of all.1 has nevertheless generated the prevalent conception of art History as a History (and even sometimes just a story) of – great – artists. on the one hand. they are fundamentally shaped by our own western and modern conception of what art and artists should be. for instance. But this name. who deliberately withdraws his own identity from his creation to the exclusive benefit of his patron. with his famous Vite de’ più eccellenti Pittori. Plates 42.1). distinct in this capacity from common people. consequently preferring to consider the monumental output that still makes Ancient Egypt famous as the production of an army of workers under the authority of a literate administrative director and reducing the maker of the work of art from the status of artist to the one of artisan – at best. It is the name of the commissioning patron who ‘self-thematized’ himself through the work of art. As Hermann Junker suggested. in the sense that there is almost no Ancient Egyptian work of art which is not – in its original and completed state – accompanied and even designated by the name of an individual. on the contrary. The Case of the Painters of Private Tombs in the Theban Necropolis during the Eighteenth Dynasty* Dimitri Laboury Introduction: Egyptology and the issue of artists As with most of the notions we use on a daily basis.2 On the other hand. though far from being universal. despite a rare propensity for monumentality and durability. such a conception of the work of art and of its relation to its various actors is quite different from the one that prevails nowadays. 1550). Ancient Egyptians merely seem to have recognized and valorised artists and makers of works of art as specialists. Indeed. and. as did. as influential as Pliny the elder or – even more significantly – Giorgio Vasari. in a rather different societal context. Egyptology and Ancient Egyptian art History appear particularly ill-suited to such an issue and incapable of addressing it. Obviously.1–2) has often led to the conclusion that ancient Egyptian art was. deserves the qualifier of eponymous. Florence. This very specific conception of the artist. In this context. making a hero out of the artist as a creative intellectual. with the main and seemingly natural aim of identifying individually those creative geniuses. Thus. is an attitude that actually finds its roots in a long lasting written discourse of important ancient western authors. omnipresent and always displayed or even shown off. the paucity of Ancient Egyptian works of art signed by their actual maker (infra. the concept of the artist has a long history that profoundly determines its currently accepted meaning in western – or westernized – contexts. who are experienced and skillful (Plate 42. from the point of view of Egyptologists and modern analysts. Scultori e Architetti italiani (‘the lives of the most excellent Italian architects. a Problem of Methodology. . such as physicians. many authors have been inclined to deny the very concept of art in this culture.199 Tracking Ancient Egyptian Artists. a collective and anonymous art – and even. fundamentally.
e. since it is probably due not so much to the accidence of preservation or discovery but to the fact that Ancient Egyptian literature was composed by a few very specific and well defined genres. and dedicated to the study of painters responsible for the decoration of private tomb chapels in the Theban Necropolis during the Eighteenth Dynasty tends to demonstrate the contrary. with the indispensible help of a large workshop?5 Besides. Indeed. dissolving the notion of artist in this multiplication of the participants in the making of the monument. Firstly. during the entire history of Ancient Egypt and beyond the limits of the sole Theban Necropolis. who conceived and supervised the entire sculpted decoration of the Parthenon. because his monumental Lady Liberty required the participation of hundreds of workers of different specialities. under the auspices of the National Foundation for Scientific Research of Belgium (F. whose official founding act is a philological discovery.-FNRS). An interdisciplinary project recently launched at the University of Liège. the collective dimension traditionally assigned to artistic production in ancient Egypt actually results from an excessive generalization of work organisation principles that were used for large-scale projects in a royal context. decades and sometimes centuries earlier. nor considered so surprising.S. i. the textual sources pertaining to artists and craftsmen who worked in Ancient Egyptian private tombs are much more informative than has been hastily claimed in the past. among which there would have been no place for such treatises.200 Dimitri Laboury Besides. a human production. those that express a personal implication in the decorative process of a private monument (already partly collected by Edith W. the total lack of any theoretical treatise on aesthetics in Ancient Egyptian literature should not be over-interpreted. the uses of the word Hm w clearly reveals that Ancient Egyptians conceptualized it as such. The textual sources relating to artists in private tombs of the Theban Necropolis during the Eighteenth Dynasty In a discipline like Egyptology. such as the private tombs in the Theban Necropolis? In this confused and ill-defined theoretical context. But. The aim of the present contribution is to explain the main methodological and documentary bases of this new project. Egyptology has often admitted that the figure of the Ancient Egyptian artist remains particularly evanescent and almost imperceptible – and even non-existent for some commentators. In regard to the notion of art.e. it is necessary to avoid another error of reasoning. Of course. the graffiti. Two kinds are to be distinguished: on the one hand. here again.7 They also reveal that the authors of those . i. Once again. signatures of ‘scribes of forms’ (the Ancient Egyptian expression for painters) are much more numerous than it seems.R. The latter attest that many painters visited the monuments made by their colleagues. without artist? Finally. Ware in 1927).000 people (according to the estimations that can be suggested from excavation of this settlement) or that the few iconographical and archaeological attestations of royal sculpture workshops that survived reveal a team work that already followed an almost semi-industrial production procedure (Plate 42. One of the most interesting points about such evidence is that it offers the opportunity to identify precisely what ancient people themselves explicitly objectified.4 It was evidently the size of the work that imposed such a fragmentation of the tasks to be performed. who would nowadays think about denying the status of ‘artist’ to a sculptor such as Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi. i. and that they beheld the formal qualities of these monuments. should – or even could – this model be transposed for private monuments. western expectations do not match very well with what Ancient Egyptian civilization meant to yield. textual evidence is always of prime importance. no one will be surprised that the workers’ settlement on the site of the great pyramids at Giza was able to accommodate up to 18. since this term can equally refer to the technical ability and mastery of a practitioner of the plastic arts as much as to those of a writer.2).6 and on the other hand.e. who knows how to handle ‘the nice words’ with his art. years.3 Should we then imagine an art. with the meaning we ascribe to it nowadays. if such a collective procedure seems to be well attested to for royal productions in Ancient Egypt. or – to refer to an older western example – to Ph(e)idias. And from this point of view.
with the famous tomb of Ahmose son of Ibana. after the iconoclastic episode of Akhenaten’s reign. just on the other side of the Nile. painters frequently presented themselves as ‘wab-priest and scribe-of-forms’. implied by different priestly titles. born from a lineage of painters of Levantine origins. Other examples from the Old Kingdom also display painters and sculptors of the Court sent by the central power to decorate tombs for the members of the elite. t) Seni. made for Kheni. the majority of painters’ monuments belong to high officials in the artistic production of Ancient Egypt and. the careful analysis of the inscriptions in this monument allowed the late Jean-Marie Kruchten to demonstrate that ‘le décorateur de la tombe 340 devinait 201 . both ‘painters in the Place-of-Maat’ (i. demonstrates. behind the figure of the harpooning tomb-owner in two different funerary monuments. Pahery. for example. located close to each other. Actual signatures claiming the making or a part of the making of a tomb’s decoration are of course no less instructive. is depicted with a palette in his hand and described as ‘the one who decorated (zS) this tomb’.qd w. both in terms of work organisation (chiefs. for example. as such. the one who directed all the works in this tomb as the one who causes the name of the father of his mother to live. at Deir el-Medineh (TT 359). i. some erudition.19) and to be published soon by Alain-Pierre Zivie. they highlight the pride of the creator. Many stelae testify to this. This rather high social position often went together with competencies in religious and intellectual fields. made for Tjeti-iqer (Kheni’s father). Izezi. and sometimes on distinct sites: in Elkab. at Elkab. was ‘charged by his Majesty to restore’ Theban temples ‘as the chief of works and director of artistic functions’ in these monuments. I am the one who decorated this tomb.e. In the first tomb. the justified one’ (Plate 42. which was made ‘by the son of his daughter. again. Vivian Davies was able to show10 – also appears accompanied by ‘his brother. ‘the scribe of the divine books of the Great-House (i. the case of a certain Sennefer. whereas in the second funerary chapel. even if such was not the case for all Ancient Egyptian painters. but it sometimes happens to encompass more. as we shall see. to members of – at least a certain part of – the leading elite.13 There are also the funerary chapels of the inhabitants of the ancient village on the site of Deir el-Medineh or the so-called ‘tomb of the artists’. directors. in the late Old Kingdom cemetery of Akhmim at el-Hawawish. who signed the decoration of the double burial chamber in the tomb of their director. Thutmose’. the institution of the Valley of the Kings). up to the supervision and management of the entire preparation of the tomb. or sometimes with a colleague or an assistant. who often presents himself alone. painters could. the painter Seni portrayed himself with his brother. like the two brothers Nebnefer and Hormin. i. he says: “I am the one who decorated (zS) the tomb of the Count Kheni and moreover. etc. the tomb of the governor Sobeknakht was apparently decorated by the painter Sedjemnetjeru.) as well as in terms of abilities.1). those of ‘the director of the scribes-of-forms of Amun. this time both grasping their palette. Nevertheless. that scribes-of-forms could produce images beyond the sole technical domain of paintings.3). the tomb of the ‘director of the scribes-of-forms in the Place-of-Maat. at Deir el-Medineh (TT 340). the scribe-of-forms of Amun.Dimitri Laboury inscriptions were literate and capable of leaving a written trace – and sometimes a literary one8 – of their visit. For example. the Palace) Izezi’. discovered in 1996 in the cliff of the Bubasteion at Saqqarah (T Bubasteion I. First of all. this precision has vanished and the figures of the two brothers. Indeed. in some cases. They might also work in different private monuments. are facing a small panel of three columns of texts that reads: ‘the painter (zS. decorated with wall reliefs (largely unfinished). Even in visitors’ graffiti.12 As members of Ancient Egyptian society. responsible for the decoration of the tomb chapel of his father Amenemhat.e.9 The artist’s claims usually refer to the actual decoration process.e. like.14 All those traces left by Ancient Egyptian painters themselves reveal a well hierarchized profession. ‘the chief of the gang in the Place-of-Maat’ Inherkhauy. who displayed his duly identified self-depiction in it and – as W. a few traces of lower ranking and less well-educated painters have fortunately also survived.e. also aspire to monuments entirely dedicated to their own commemoration. Further to the North. This is the case. among other evidence. who. being alone!”11 (Plate 43. the painter Ahmose’ in the contemporaneous chapel of Horemkhauef – very similar in style as well as in iconographical conception – at Hierakonpolis. This funerary chapel. who were particularly proud to exhibit this remarkable favour. both ‘servants (sDm -aS) in the Placeof-Maat’. Dedia’ (Louvre C 50 and Cairo CG 42122).
sometimes simply referred to as ‘the men’. Thus. essentially ‘scribes of forms’. Finally. all these painters. (i)r (i)n k in k zA (for zA.202 Dimitri Laboury plus qu’il ne comprenait le sens des signes plurilitères. others come from more or less distant sites. their number clearly decreases with the evolution of the work and the level of specialization of the workers involved. a designation that seems to denote a rather low level of specialization. f). f ?) zSi (sic) m ty (s)an x rn(.2). Even if some of those ostraca refer to a daily counting (lists of absent and present workers. a fact that strongly suggests that the work was not continuous. the plasterers. But the most informative textual sources – and. quarrymen and plasterers.15 Sennefer was. etc. real snapshots in the process of preparing an Ancient Egyptian private tomb. activities completed. painters seem to have enjoyed a more individualized recognition than their colleagues. Qau el-Kebir or Hermopolis. Although an ostracon of the Hermitage Museum does make exceptional mention – for an unknown period of time – of the work of 60 men and 7 ‘children’ in ‘the (funerary?) estate of the steward of the palace Sebty’.e. whether directors or subordinates. The daily work ostraca also attest to a recurring distribution of tasks and operations to be carried out by various kinds of workers. as the one who (causes his) name (to) live’. according to the documentation gathered so far.17 Furthermore. but also from Neferusy. These are ostraca.e. about 20 kilometres south of the necropolis.e.). Next to individuals who appear to be Theban. never more than two painters are attested to at the same time in a single tomb. An ostracon discovered near the funerary chapel of Senenmut (TT 71) at Thebes even records the action of ‘taking over the work of the tomb by the scribe (or painter) Nebamun from the scribe (or painter) User until day 28’. etymologically ‘those of the necropolis’ (x r. and those in charge of the decoration itself. as records of the evolution of the work in the preparation of a tomb in the necropolis. a situation that must have often caused some logistic and ergonomic problems in the management of the work. frequently associated with quarrymen. ranging from 3 or 4 to around 10 people. from its carving to the finalization of its decoration. i.19 the teams involved in the preparation of private tombs during the Eighteenth Dynasty are usually quite small. such as Armant. most of them provide clear evidence that the work was computed by the month. of which different lots are known16 – even if all of them are not yet published – and whose function was essentially administrative. the ones that seem to have been the least exploited until now – to facilitate an understanding of the modalities of private tombs’ decoration in Ancient Egypt are probably the daily work texts. to the state. relating to the preparation of the tomb of the high priest of Amun Mery (TT 95) – and not yet published18 – reveal that the same kinds of work were performed in the same parts of the tomb after several months and sometimes after several years. if the quarrymen and relatively unskilled labourers can be quite numerous. to quote just a few examples. which appears as their official and main employer.n sw. other documents of the same type. I am the son who writes correctly. avec une fidélité très relative’. So. it is not the . the teams of plasterers are generally smaller and.dj . among which one can mainly distinguish: the quarrymen. i. is probably the fact that they establish without any ambiguity that stonecutters.nTr). so proud of what he had been able to do for the funerary commemoration of his father that he complemented one of his self-depictions in the tomb with the following inscription. (Plate 43. tyw . at the same time. the most striking thing revealed by these ostraca. alas not without a few mistakes that betray his real level of literacy: ‘(a)s for (m)e. des passages entiers d’expressions stéréotypées. In many cases.20 in the midst of Middle Egypt (380 kilometres from Thebes). Moreover. by a standard time frame and a rather short period compared to the time needed to complete the entire process of constructing a tomb. Another distinction between the different types of workers is that the painters are always mentioned by name. On some occasions. quantities done. Finally. these accounting documents furthermore allow us to specify the origin of the workers involved in the preparation of a tomb. almost systematically exhibit an administrative affiliation to a religious institution. i. however. the decoration of a private tomb was thus a quite marginal activity for them. whereas it is almost never the case for the many quarrymen and other labourers in charge of stone cutting or transportation and preparation of materials needed for making the tomb. comme dans le cas de la formule Ht p . plasterers and painters could happen to work within the same tomb at the same time. répétant de mémoire.
in other words. revealing that the crew often came from groups under the authority of the tomb owner or of one of his colleagues or familiars.3): whereas ‘the best archaeological draughtsman of his generation’. The epistemological implications of such an epigraphic and documentary use of Ancient Egyptian paintings are far from being insignificant. Usually called the Morellian method – in reference to the famous Italian physician and art connoisseur Giovanni Morelli (1816–1891).22 indeed one of the most famous and most productive epigraphists Egyptology has ever known.Dimitri Laboury geographic origin but the administrative one that is mentioned. Such a method proved to be very productive in the study of western Early Modern paintings or Ancient Greek vase decoration. of which only a few fragments are preserved in the Louvre Museum. the German archaeologist of the Theban Necropolis sought to record the material state of the archaeological object he had to document. a vision that tends to ‘dematerialize’ the image. The material evidence: towards an archaeology of art and an experimental art History In keeping with the continuity of the fascination that western culture seems to have always had for the hieroglyphic and symbolical dimension of Ancient Egyptian iconography. considering them as clues for – or even symptoms of – a common creator. many marks that can be used to investigate and restore the genesis of the object and the circumstances of its creation. those two Egyptologists do not see the same things in front of the same object and never present the same visual and mental image of it. i. mainly because of two fundamental and foundational characteristics of this art: on the one hand. on the other hand.25 Private tomb chapels of the Eighteenth Dynasty in the Theban Necropolis literally abound with examples of motifs copied from one monument to another. Textual sources. the indispensable medium of its physical and artistic existence. Egyptology has long developed a very peculiar vision of Ancient Egyptian art. to deprive the latter of its materiality and (re)present it as some sort of a hieroglyphic composition. One of the most famous cases is probably the now lost tomb of Wensu (TT A4). Egyptology is probably the only one that still continues to publish painted works in line drawings. it is indeed possible to demonstrate that Ancient Egyptians conceptualized invention. moreover. who withdraws his stylistic identity from his work in order to merge the latter into the style of his time. As Lise Man- 203 . directing an archaeological observation of a painted work.e. and notably artistic invention. Because of their respective trainings. The ambition to identify individual painters in the Theban Necropolis has already motivated a few studies. who succeeded in identifying artists’ ‘hands’ by scrutinizing the morphology of some characteristic details in Renaissance and Early Modern paintings – this approach consists of comparing motifs of similar shape.21 even if the latter was still quite often described as a special favour granted by the king – most probably as a question of prestige. the phenomenon of creative borrowing or creation by imitation. a process that implies – at least partially – an imitation of those forms inherited from the ancestors. From a theoretical point of view.3 c). while willingly omitting or minimising – at least as a first step – its properly aesthetic dimension and semantic component allows us to better see and consider the materiality of this object. such an analysis of painting practices even allows us to track the work of individual painters. or. As we shall see. just like any piece of ceramic or funerary furniture (Plate 43. And just like in a stratigraphy.23 Thus. Thus. but it is necessary to underline here the limits of the most frequently used method in this field: iconographic homology or analogy. stored within this material medium. and. cleared from any element that could compromise its really hieroglyphic readability (Plate 43. They are particularly well illustrated by the comparison proposed by Daniel Polz in 1987 of his line-drawing recording of a scene in the entrance of the tomb of Huy (TT 54) with a drawing made of exactly the same scene a few decades earlier by Norman de Garis Davies (Plate 43.24 but its application in the context of Ancient Egyptian art is quite problematic. an obvious will of stylistic homogenization. gave a very legible image.3 b). among all the disciplines involved in the study of paintings. as an emulation of the models from the past. converge to suggest that it was the patron and tomb owner himself who directly supplied the human and material means needed for the creation of his commemorative monument. of neutralization of the personal style of the artist. there are.
nor even properly cut. Kemp explain the phenomenon by the scarcity of skilled workmen needed for creating a tomb and they suggest correlating this with the very intense activity of construction and decoration that characterizes the reign of Akhenaten. sometimes separated by more than a century. Ernest Mackay noted: ‘It would appear from the evidence to be found in several tombs.3). part of the decorative scheme of one tomb was copied from the other. like. almost identical in form and grouped in very similar compositions (often register by register). or from a common source. and especially in Nos. it is not unusual that a plasterer extended his plastering over a zone where the stone had not yet been properly dressed or sometimes even cut.204 Dimitri Laboury niche has demonstrated26 many scenes from this funerary chapel are to be found. they pointed out recurring patterns of incompletion that imply a quite unexpected coordination of the work and of the workers. Plate 44. it cannot be used as a proper – or at least principal – means to track individual creators. even if some details appear to be unique in the entire iconographic repertoire of Ancient Egypt in its current state of preservation.1). the character itself. that the plasterers often started work on the walls before the masons had finally finished cutting the chapel. the sequence of the brush strokes that produced it that allows such an assertion. a fact that of course implies the impossibility of a common author. rather. is in each case perfectly recognizable. Even if the motif. to technique. his own painterly handwriting. but rather to the actual making of the motif. . In many other cases. in the apparently contemporaneous rock-cut tomb of the Governor of Elkab – and ex-painter of Amun – Pahery (T Elkab 3. in which the painter already drew the preliminary sketch of an entire scene just next to the entrance door while the cutting of the tomb had barely been started (Plate 44. In tomb 78 the outer faces of two columns were plastered with a preliminary coating of mud. Just like in a real handwritten signature. nor in any other necropolis of Ancient Egypt. 78 (Haremhab) and 79 (Menkheper).e. i. for example. This means that the plastering work would inevitably be damaged – and subsequently need to be redone or repaired – when quarrymen later came to continue their task. in this example. fits perfectly with the material approach suggested above. the hieroglyph of the duckling TA ( ) (Plate 44. The first level is of course the one of the monument itself.’29 Some cases are really astonishing. as early as 1921. the cases of morphological homology really relevant in this perspective do not pertain to iconography. This concept of a technical signature. what they observed at Amarna can also be found in almost every tomb of the Theban Necropolis (and the same actually holds true for all the other cemeteries of Ancient Egypt). Besides. were made by the same hand while the third one is the work of another individual. and. Gwil Owen and Barry J. G.e. Dealing with this issue for the elite cemetery of Amarna. Kemp brought to light various kinds of works archaeologically attested to in the tombs that corresponded to various stages of preparation and to various categories of workers. the copy refers to much older models. an approach that considers the work of art in its technological dimension or as a process – and not just as the result of the latter. J. In fact. It has often been noted that there is hardly a single tomb for which the decoration has been completed in the entire Theban Necropolis.27 Since copying is obviously integral to the phenomenon of iconographic creation in Ancient Egypt. Such an archaeological look on paintings in Theban Tombs can be applied at different levels. Thus. Owen and B. It is not so much the shape of the motif but. Shelley Wachsmann has proposed the concept of hybridism to describe the very common process by which Ancient Egyptian artists combined elements from different sources to invent and produce their own compositions. Moreover.2). Close-up photographs gathered by the late Roland Tefnin provide us with a very good illustration of this: in the tomb of Tjanuny (TT 74) – as in the majority of Theban tombs and Ancient Egyptian monuments in general – the hieroglyphic inscriptions display variations in the rendering of some signs. Without any possible doubt. a signature made by the personal habits and practices of the painter or. revealing different complementary information. though in opposite orientation and of slightly different colours. i. though their backs are still rough and in places not trimmed. it is equally obvious that the two signs on the left.28 Thus. such as the one of TT 229. moreover. in other words. it is not the final form – which is always susceptible to some variations – but the way it was done that makes the signature or sign(al)s the individuality of the author. images and inscriptions alike.
led by Hugues Tavier33 within the project initiated at the University of Liège. the lines and the individual artistic process. brushes.). Largely unused in Egyptology. speed and productiveness of the various tasks to be carried out. the performance of an experimental art History. A recent study Hugues Tavier and I have led on the paintings in the long hall of the tomb chapel of the Vizier Amenemope (TT 29) at Sheikh Abd el-Gurna34 reveals the potential of this double method. and especially at the closer level of the brush strokes.4).31 Moreover. that this painter was right-handed. this dual approach allowed us to demonstrate. on the contrary. examples of this procedure can be found in almost every tomb chapel of the Theban Necropolis. and. the ergonomic and spatial relations between the material traces of the successive stages in the making of the tombs’ decoration – from the last plastering meant to receive the paintings up to the final outlines – provide clear evidence that the entire decoration procedure was normally handled by a single person. Applied to the level of the wall or to the surface to be decorated (face of a pillar. i. therefore. spatial and functional distribution of the latter. in which the different successive tasks took place discontinuously and sometimes all at the same time. and usually completes the entire painting procedure in one zone before moving to another. different clues allow us to determine the range of skills of the painter. roof. an experimental approach to art indeed appears to be the best way to scrutinize the intimacy of the work of art and to try to comprehend its genesis. for example.e. but one of the most explicit is probably an unfinished scene from TT 145. the combination of an Archaeology of art and an experimental art History. etc. generally corresponding to the range of action of an immobile person. which could vary significantly from one case to the next. This is. like pigments.). simultaneity of the different phases of the work. where the painter complemented his composition in different places by drawing a preliminary sketch over the white background of a scene he had previously – almost – finished (Plate 44.e. whereas some of their colleagues obviously adapted those models to the actual layout of their composition. For example. lintel. From this level on. the archaeological approach to Theban painting – if considered as a process – reveals the practical modalities of the painter’s work. who was therefore capable of performing the complete technical sequence himself. Indeed. that he generally coloured his composition by successive vertical bands approximately one meter wide. highlights the impact of ergonomic and technical conditions (due. and to assess the specific properties and potentialities of the painting material archaeologically attested to. Once again. mistakes in the hieroglyphic transposition of hieratic models for texts in the paintings sometimes betray the poor literacy skills of painters. who executed the complete technical sequence himself. Performed in equivalent conditions. modalities of team work.30 In addition. as I propose to call them. undisputable philological abilities. its application to art History is still embryonic. correspond very well with the information provided by the daily work ostraca mentioned above. Both also lead us to infer that it was difficult for private patrons to have at their disposal the skilled craftsmen required to prepare a proper tomb. converge to suggest a very peculiar work organisation. in the name of a certain Nebamun. on the basis of strictly material observations – i. helps in identifying the part of the work that truly relates to the personal habits and practices of the painter. both types of sources. Indeed.32 etc. in fact. to precisely evaluate the ergonomic conditions of the work in the tomb chapels (lighting conditions. This research. according to a progression that could also be reconstructed. archaeological as well as textual. to the nature of the pigments or of the binders used or to the technique of tempera) on the art of painting the Theban tomb chapels during the Eighteenth Dynasty. experimentation allows us to appraise – and therefore to validate or refute – hypotheses generated by the examination of ancient paintings. the study of the material dimension of the work within the analytical perspective of an archaeology of art needs to be complemented by an experimental approach.Dimitri Laboury These kinds of ergonomic conflicts. thus revealing. etc. observations easy to objectivize and to verify – that this part of the monument was decorated by a single painter. bowls. and that he attempted to hurry his work by shortening his usual painting procedure but nonetheless did not succeed in finishing his task within the time 205 . from the clayey last layer of plastering to the final outlines of the paintings. He clearly handles work zones of relatively small surface areas. Even if the concept of an experimental Archaeology is nowadays accepted. despite the extraordinary research perspectives it opens.
206 Dimitri Laboury allotted. the acknowledgement of the preconceived ideas generated by contemporary western culture(s) vis-à-vis the issue of the artist and the adoption of a less dogmatic perspective on the subject. And finally. also lead to a probably more appropriate definition of the artist as someone distinct from simple image-makers. Acta Orientalia Belgica XVIII. 7 On those graffiti. written in French and intended to be published by the SCAE in a volume dedicated to Abdel Ghaffar Shedid. 6 See E. Die gesellschaftliche Stellung der ägyptischen Künstler im Alten Reich. 289–300. Furthermore. The issue is actually a little bit more complicated. due to his technical as well as intellectual competences. in C. Krejci (eds). For their ancient depictions. The mastaba of the vizier Nebit (North Mastaba 18) at Dashur. that he obviously had a rather good knowledge of the art of hieroglyphic writing. Hm w. * The present article is a slightly modified and translated version of a previous contribution. see J.). like colossal statues or even temples. Wiesbaden 1976. see the contribution of Alexis Den Doncker in this volume. Dans l’atelier du sculpteur Thoutmose. Myth and Magic in the Image of the Artist. Furthermore. Vienna 1959.w and Hm (w) . ÄA 31. The representations of statuary in private tombs of the Old Kingdom. 2 See H. D. La langue dans tous ses états. Die Handwerker und ihre Tätigkeiten im alten Ägypten. see E. copyists or craftsmen according to his personal investment in his work on a formal as well as on a semantic level. On the contrary. Coppens – J. 116–132. since it leads to a better definition and a clearer picture not so much of the individual identity of Ancient Egyptian artists but rather of their societal identity. EatonKrauss. 185–201. Oppenheim. I will return to this subject in a forthcoming contribution specifically dedicated to it. any mistake remains entirely mine. Sculpture Ateliers of Akhetaten. emphasized the strength of the western tradition on the subject. Cannuyer (ed. Kris – O. ÄA 39. at the same time. their often underestimated diversity is such that it requires a multiple and multidisciplinary approach. 5 One has to note here that in Ancient Egyptian sources. 4 For archaeological remains of royal sculpture workshops. Prague 2006. 31–40. on a more theoretical level. a perspective that simply focuses on and sticks to the material evidence. 3 See the expressions using the terms Hm w. . Legend. cols 82–85. as essential actors in this culture. Identifying artists in the time of Senusret III. Laboury. I would like to express here my deepest gratitude to Todd Gillen for his many suggestions to improve the language of this article. which so many painters of the private tomb chapels in the Theban Necropolis during the Eighteenth Dynasty obviously displayed. the place they held within the society of Ancient Egypt.e. But such an investigation – as complex as it might reveal itself to be – is very rewarding. in M. Brussels – Liège – Louvain-La-Neuve – Leuven 2005. Junker. the sources that allow us to study the artists of Ancient Egyptian painting – an artistic production that still generates widespread fascination and recognition among art lovers and connoisseurs even today – are far from being as poor or useless as has been assumed in the past. who were generally supposed to be definitely inaccessible. M. American Journal of Semitic Languages and Literatures 43/3 (1927). consequently. Ware. 1 On this question. Michel Malaise in honorem. Drenkhahn. the addition of atypical and unnecessary – but nevertheless grammatically correct – complements to the inscription that describes one of the unfinished scenes shows that he tried to adjust this legend to the actual and final layout of his painting and. dating back to late classical Greece. Egyptian Artists’ Signatures. invention and authorship. Barta – F. see A. Phillips. New Haven – London 1930. Wiesbaden 1984. t in Wb III. i. also usually claim originality. Of course. Abusir and Saqqara in the year 2005. as the very well known cases of Amenhotep son of Hapu or Senenmut exemplify among many others. for a recent reassessment of the question of creative cooperation in Egyptian tomb decoration. As can be seen. using all the resources of Egyptology – and even those this discipline is still currently inventing. the coordinators of large-scale works of art. Kurz. Amarna Letters 1 (1991). An examination of two studio-complexes in the City of the Sun-Disk. see R. who aimed to demonstrate the existence of common trends and topoi in the reported lives of artists almost all over the world (within specific societal contexts) and.
see P. Les espaces de l’écrit dans l’Égypte pharaonique. Dynastie. 25 On this topic. the zS. The dynastic tombs at Hierakonpolis: the lower group and the artist Sedjemnetjeru. 113–125. Vergangenheit und Zukunft. A new publication of the tomb has recently been issued by N. Vernus. The author of the present article is currently preparing with Stéphane Polis and Todd Gillen (F. Minguet. Cairo 2010. 21 In addition to the case of the two tombs of Senenmut. 325–348). 15 See Kruchten.-Fr. Artists in the Old Kingdom. BSFE 119 . V. t (n n zS. just below the tomb of Mery.-P. New York 1942.-M. Die ‘Auf-den-Ruf-Hörenden’ in der Privatwirtschaft unter der 18. One has to note here the apparent double meaning ascribed to the verb zS: according to the titles of the two brothers.R. 73–93. in E. Megally. Gardiner. a joint project of the University of Brussels and the University of Liège. see the document edited by P.S. Lingua Aegyptia 4 . La tombe d’Inherkhâouy (TT 359) à Deir el-Medina. Attic Blackfigure Vase-painters. La vie en Égypte au temps des pharaons du Nouvel Empire. It is his own heart who leads him. D. A. 13 See D. see. Techniques and Achievements. 13). Cairo 2009. 24 See the now classic analyses of J. see P. Wenig (eds). Bickel (ed. where he stressed in a double inscription that ‘it is with his own fingers that he made those inscriptions. 47–58. 293–312. in W.qd w. signed by his brother. Zivie. while in Seni’s words. and the tomb of Setau has recently been published by J. n. S. Davies. Construire une tombe à l’ouest de Mn-nfr. H. Kruchten – L. 9 See the study of the late C. Klinkenberg – Ph. 11 On this double scene. in G. in Izezi’s inscription in the tomb of Kheni. Edeline – J. mentioned above (Hayes. Davies. Laboury.Dimitri Laboury 8 See. V. in S. Egypt’s false prophet. 71–73. Arnheim. on this construction.’ This text was first studied by W.-H. La tombe de Sétaou.). This interpretation fits very well with the assertion of the scribe Merira in the Twentieth Dynasty tomb of Setau at Elkab. Ostraka. A Remarkable Family of Draughtsmen-Painters from Early Nineteenth-Dynasty Thebes. Endesfelder – K. Un détour par Saqqara. London 2001. 91–106. The Graffito from the Tomb of Pere. Delvaux. Visual Thinking. 86–88. Woods. Spiegelberg. no. A family affair: the decoration of Theban Tomb 359. Die gesellschaftliche Stellung der ägyptischen Künstler. zS probably refers to the act of conceiving the decoration of the monument (on the role of the scribe of divine books in such a task throughout Ancient Egyptian History. Die Konstruktion historischer Zeit in der 18. Akhenaten. to be published in 207 . A. 49. R. RT 24 (1902). London 2001. Pour une rhétorique de l’ image. Un intéressant ostracon de la XVIIIe dynastie de Thèbes. Basel. Paris 2003. Ostraka and Name Stones from the Tomb of Sen-Mut (no. Attic Red-figure Vase-painters. 10–11. 85–86. Corteggiani. 23 This inextricable link between training or experience and visual perception is of course very well known in cognitive psychology and cognitive science (at least since the middle of the previous century. Colour and Painting in Ancient Egypt. Oxford 1956. Keller. Traduction et commentaire des inscriptions. and re-described more recently by Kanawati – Woods. J. Berkeley – Los Angeles 1954. Deir el-Médineh et la nécropole memphite. in W. V. Paris 1992). 22 and pl. Kanawati – A. for example. D. Cherpion. Priese – W. it obviously applies to the actual making of the tombs’ decoration. Beazley. 15). Elkab 8. Art and Visual Perception: A Psychology of the Creative Eye. Posener. BIFAO 81s (1981). Traité du signe visuel. Citations et usages de l’art du Moyen Empire à l’époque thoutmoside. Hayes. 70 (p. while the scribe of the divine books Merira. Actes du colloque organise par le musée du Louvre les 3 et 4 mai 2002. but it seems to have been totally neglected within Egyptology and its own practices. RdE 33 (1981). Brussels 2010. 14 For a preliminary overview on this tomb. see N. Arnheim. see A. 8–10. and edited by A. JEA 14 (1928). 22 N. 18 They were discovered during the excavation of the tomb chapel of the vizier Amenemope (TT 29). Davies (ed.). Ägypten und Kush. Oriens Antiquus 15 (1976). Ostraka). he is not of the kind of the zS. for example.-M. 39 and 49. 20 See M. 17 See Hayes. or Fr. MIFAO 128. pls 5–6.-FNRS – University of Liège) a systematic study of the entire corpus of this kind of texts. 12 Most of those examples were gathered and studied by Junker. 78–79. Cairo 1999. Artist in the Old Kingdom. without any superior to give him instructions. Dynastie.qd Batjay. 16 The most famous is definitely the one published by W. C. Vernus. 71) at Thebes. describes the two complementary aspects of this process. Observations sur la predication de classe (‘Nominal Predicate’).). in fact.-P. Deir el-Médineh et la Vallée des Rois. in N. R. t pw. 19 See E. see D. in both cases. Andreu (ed.qd w. 10 See W. Colour and Painting in Ancient Egypt. Oxford 1942. Berkeley 1969. Reeves. the famous graffito in the name of Pawah in TT 139 (Pairy). 22. Deux tombes de la XVIIIe dynastie à Deir el-Medina. Reineke – S. Lowle. Cherpion – J. by the Belgian Archaeological Mission in the Theban Necropolis. Berlin 1977. Beazley. it’s a question of creating the decoration and. Bogolovsky. the justified one. Eine Künstlerinschrift des Neuen Reiches.
where the author suggests considering Ancient Egyptian art as a performing art. Leiden – Boston.208 Dimitri Laboury 2011.). 2008. 21. Prolégomènes à une analyse des pratiques picturales dans la tombe d’Amenemopé (TT 29). Craftsmen’s Work Patterns in Unfinished Tombs at Amarna. Wachsmann. 29 E. Monumenta Aegyptiaca 12. like dramatic art or music. G. Shedid. Laboury – H. Painting techniques and artisan organization in the Tomb of Suemniwet. A Study of Certain Eighteenth Dynasty Monuments in the Theban Necropolis. 26 See L. AV 50. Thèbes aux 101 portes. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 4/1 (1994). JEA 7 (1921). Warmenbol – V. À la recherche des peintres de la nécropole thébaine sous la 18e dynastie. 91–106. 1–18. notably in C. The cutting and preparation of tomb-chapels in the Theban Necropolis. 34 See Laboury – Tavier. Mainz. Egyptian Art – A performing art?. Mélanges à la mémoire de Roland Tefnin. 28 See G. Davies (ed. Theban Tomb 92. Brussels 2010. where the artist – duly acknowledged as such – can perform a composition created by someone else. 1–28. 62–87. 27 See S. D’Auria (ed. Servant of Mut. Bryan.). Shedid. pls 1–10. London – New York 1988. in E. . Aegeans in the Theban Tombs. Owen – B. G. AV 66. Pour une approche expérimentale de la peinture thébaine. Shedid. J. G. Mainz 1988. Fazzini. H. 31 See D. Kemp. in S. pls 8–22. 1987. OLA 20. 30 Another obvious example was published by B. Stil der Grabmalerein in der Zeit Amenophis’ II. Angenot (eds). Colour and Painting in Ancient Egypt. H. Beinlich-Seeber – A. Leuven 1987. Manniche. Studies in Honor of Richard A. for example. Lost Tombs. in W. 32 On this matter. Mackay. M. V. Tavier. 33 See his contribution in these proceedings. see the pioneering investigations of A. 154–168. and A.e. pl. Das Grab des Userhat (TT 56). 121–129.1. Arnold. i. Another good case of this phenomenon of creation by imitation and emulation of the past appears in the study of D. Tavier. À la recherche des peintres de la nécropole thébaine sous la 18e dynastie.
Dimitri Laboury Plate 42 1 Depiction of Amenemhat paying homage to the artists responsible for the making and decoration of his Theban tomb (TT 82). de G. London 1915. After N. 60. 8. New York 1943. Laboury. de G. 3 Signature of the scribe-of-forms Pahery in the tomb of the father of his mother Ahmose son of Ibana at Elkab (T Elkab 5). pl. Davies. according to an iconographic use inherited from the Old Kingdom. Davies. pl. Photo: D. The Tomb of Amenemhet (No. 82). 2 Scene of a sculptors’ workshop in the temple of Amun-Ra at Karnak depicted in the tomb of Rekhmira (TT 100). . N. The Tomb of Rekh-mi-Re‘ at Thebes.
8. cit. Cairo 1999. Polz. fig. and N. Theben Nr. Assmann – G. I. op. 1. in J. the scribe of the divine books of the Great-House Izezi in the tombs of Kheni and Tjeti-iqer at el-Hawawish (TH 24 and TH 26). Das Grab des Hui und des Kel. 136–137.. After N. The Rock Tombs of El-Hawawish.Dimitri Laboury Plate 43 1 Signatures and self-depictions of the scribe-offorms Seni and his brother. fig. London 1987. 2 Self-depiction of the servant in the Place-of-Maat Sennefer in the tomb of his father Amenemhat at Deir el-Medineh (TT 340) After N. 8. a b c . pl. pl. Mainz 1996. Problems and Priorities in Egyptian Archaeology. Deux tombes de la XVIIIe dynastie à Deir el-Medina. After D. Kanawati. Sydney 1981. V. 54. Kanawati. Polz. 18. The Cemetery of Akhmim II. Cherpion. Burkard – W. Davies (eds). and D. 3 a-c Comparison of a photograph of the scene painted in the entrance way (left door-jamb) of the tomb of Huy (TT 54) and the line drawings of the same respectively made by Norman de Garis Davies and Daniel Polz. MIFAO 114.
2 Three depictions of the hieroglyphic sign TA in the tomb of Tjanuny (TT 74). A Study of Certain Eighteenth Dynasty Monuments in the Theban Necropolis. Baud. Manniche. and M. After A. 13. 10.Dimitri Laboury Plate 44 1 Parts of the decoration of the western wall of the tomb chapel of Pahery (T Elkab 3). 506. MIFAO 63. Tefnin. After F. Die preliminary sketch has been painted on the white background of an thebanische Nekropole. Lost Tombs. fig. Cairo 1935. Les dessins ébauchés de la in ASAE 43 (1943). After pictures © MANT – archives R. adjacent scene already drawn and almost finished. 199. 3 Plan and location of the remains of the decoration 4 Part of the decoration of the tomb of Nebamun (TT 145) where a initiated in the TT 229. pl. which appear almost identical on the fragments from the Theban tomb of Wensu (TT A4) preserved in the Louvre Museum (N 1430-1 and 3318) After L. pl. Kampp. Fakhry. London – New York 1988. Nécropole Thébaine (au temps du Nouvel Empire). fig. . Mayence 1996. 94. 398 .

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