A feast for Nebamun, the bottom half of a scene from the
tomb-chapel of Nebamun
Thebes, Egypt
18th Dynasty, around 1350 BC
An entire wall of the tomb-chapel showed a
feast in honour of Nebamun. Naked serving-girls and servants wait
on his friends and relatives. Married guests sit in pairs on fine
chairs, while the young women turn and talk to each other. This
erotic scene of relaxation and wealth is something for Nebamun to
enjoy for all eternity.
All the guests wear elaborate linen clothes.
The artists have painted the cloth as if it were transparent, to
show that it is very fine. These elegant sensual dresses fall in
loose folds around the guests’ bodies.
The young men sit on rows of stools, beside a
group of young women who sit on chairs with cushions. Men and
women’s skins are painted in different colours: the men are tanned
and the women are paler. In one place the artists altered the
drawing of these wooden stools and corrected their first sketch
with white paint.
M. Hooper, The Tomb of Nebamun
(London, British Museum Press, 2007)
R. Parkinson, The painted Tomb-chapel of
Nebamun. (London, British Museum Press, 2008)
A. Middleton and K.
Uprichard, (eds.), The Nebamun Wall Paintings:
Conservation, Scientific Analysis and Display at the British
Museum (London, Archetype, 2008)