In ancient Egypt, the walls of private tombs were decorated with scenes of daily life. Although invaluable records for reconstructing tools, manufacturing techniques, hunting and fishing practices, music and dance performances, and the business of scribes registering taxes, these scenes are largely allegorical and idealized. These images were intended to preserve for eternity the activities and the people who performed them for the deceased, thus enabling the tomb owners to enjoy the results of the depicted activities.1

This section of a wall from a private tomb chapel shows a herd of donkeys, of which four are preserved, being driven over a threshing floor, their hooves separating the grain from the chaff. Scenes of donkeys on the threshing floor are found in many tombs of mid–Dynasty 5 through Dynasty 6, usually as a part of representations of the seasonal stages of agriculture (flooding of the Nile, sowing, growing, and harvesting), which in turn refer to the eternal cycle of birth and death that the deceased’s spirit wished to join. The fragment is carved in fine-quality raised relief, with internal modeling that shows the musculature of the donkeys as well as the detail in the hieroglyphs above. The sign of the three papyrus plants growing in the marsh has zigzag lines at its base to represent water, and the partially preserved reed leaf sign at the left has lines that depict the veins in the leaf (see fig. 1). The movement of the donkeys as they are driven forward is conveyed by the backward angle of their ears and the determined expression on their faces. The relief would have been painted; still visible today are traces of brownish-red pigment in the donkeys’ eyes and on the back of the necks of the donkey at the left and the one bending down at the bottom right.2

Carved and painted decoration began to appear on walls of private tombs of Dynasty 2 (about 2700 BCE) in the form of a stela placed in mud-brick niche that showed the deceased seated before a table of offerings. By Dynasty 3 (about 2650 BCE), the walls of tomb chapels were also decorated, but that trend was temporarily suspended in early Dynasty 4 (about 2565 BCE) when much of the relief was restricted to a stela positioned above the tomb’s false door (see cat. 1). Dynasties 5–6 may be said to be the golden era of private tomb decoration in the Old Kingdom, a period in which entire walls were carved and painted with a great variety of scenes.^[1] It is thought that this progression was related to the construction projects of the royal family. During Dynasty 4, the era of building enormous pyramids at Dahshur and Giza, private tombs were less elaborate because skilled craftsmen were fully engaged in the royal projects. In Dynasty 5, when the royal tombs were more modest, greater numbers of skilled craftsmen were available to take on private commissions.^[2]3

Large-scale images of the tomb owner and his family fishing and fowling in the marshes feature prominently in private tombs of Dynasties 5–6. These scenes were usually located in the front chamber of a tomb chapel. Most of the remaining decoration consisted of multiple registers of groups of people and animals working on the estate of the tomb owner, and files of men and women busily transporting food and objects into the tomb, all carried out under the passive gaze of a large image of the deceased as he surveys the activity, assuring that all is well in this life and the next.4

Donkeys on the threshing floor appeared in many tombs at the end of Dynasty 5 and into Dynasty 6.^[3] More fully preserved examples (see fig. 2) show a group of animals followed by a drover or two urging the animals on with a raised stick. Most of the scenes portray a group of donkeys, the number of which varies, and separate but adjacent groups of cattle and sometimes goats on the threshing floor.^[4] The now-fragmentary text above the donkeys’ heads can be reconstructed from better-preserved reliefs; it is the call of the drover—“Back with them!”—as the little herd is driven in a circle, their hooves crushing the stalks. The complete scenes do not show the hooves of the donkeys, indicating that they are standing in a deep pile of grain.5

This subject appeared in many tombs at Saqqara.^[5] While details vary, especially the number of donkeys, there is astounding uniformity in the known examples. Although not preserved on this fragment, standard features include the naked drover(s) with raised stick, the backward-pointing ears of the animals, and a donkey (or two) that bends down to eat grain from the threshing floor (see fig. 2). This regularity makes it impossible to establish which tomb this relief was commissioned for, but its similarity to others from Saqqara strongly suggests it is from that necropolis. The right-facing orientation of the animals indicates that it came from the left wall of the tomb, for the herd would be heading toward the image of the tomb owner and the false door.6

The composition is elegant, with the repeated curve of the animals’ chests creating a strong line. Overlapping forms are largely restricted to images of herds of animals as well as groups of people such as soldiers or priests. Overlapping is also a convention that was used to convey depth—the animals are understood to be in a cluster, not in a neat single-file row. In contrast to the stylization of the human form that combines profile and frontal views to create a composite image, the donkeys are realistically rendered with correct anatomical detail. Interior modeling conveys the musculature of their necks and the planes of their faces. This feature was more pronounced in late Dynasty 5 than in Dynasty 6, suggesting the earlier date for this relief.^[6]7

Continuity in Tomb Decoration, the Master Artisan, and Copies

It is not unusual that a scene appeared with amazing uniformity in many different tombs. A group of tombs dating to any era of pharaonic civilization—whether at Saqqara, Beni Hassan in Middle Egypt, or Luxor in southern Egypt—may have the same composition replicated in multiple tombs. There must have been a limited number of master artisans in any locale, and they must have been in demand for commissions in the same area. Indeed, there were many potential clients, for every successful civil servant desired a decorated tomb. Thus, the repetition of subject matter may partially be due to a single master craftsman who was in charge of multiple tombs. Although it has been assumed that these craftsmen worked from some sort of master source, like a pattern book, we have no physical evidence for them, so this hypothesis cannot be proved. An alternate theory is that, regardless of the craftsman, scenes from one tomb were copied directly to others.^[7] At Saqqara, the tombs are so close in both period of construction and physical proximity that copying from tomb to tomb would have been very feasible. This practice would account for the many small variations seen in otherwise similar scenes, with each slight change being an expression of the creativity of an individual artist.^[8]8

The organization of craftsmen and their methods of work also ensured continuity. They were highly specialized and divided by task into groups, including draftsmen, outline artists, and painters.^[9] They also developed a technique of using a grid to ensure uniform proportions of the figures. These grids are known from the walls of tombs in Dynasties 5–6. A string dipped in pigment was snapped across the walls at regular intervals to divide each figure vertically; then horizontal lines were added to indicate the position of the top of the head, the bottom of the neck, the armpit, the elbow, the knees, and the bottom of the buttocks. In Dynasty 6, an additional guideline at the shin was added.^[10] The outline craftsman sketched the figures in red pigment. The master outline artist then corrected the lines in black (see cat. 43). These steps are easily observable in unfinished reliefs. Other teams of workmen successively carved and painted the relief.9

Provenance

The Art Institute of Chicago, acquired in 1910.10

Publication History

Art Institute of Chicago, Thirty-Second Annual Report: June 1, 1910–June 1, 1911 (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago 1911), 19, 62.11

Art Institute of Chicago, The Art Institute of Chicago Handbook of Sculpture, Architecture, Paintings, and Drawings, pt. 1, Architecture and Sculpture (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1920), 113, pl. 5.12

Thomas George Allen, A Handbook of the Egyptian Collection (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1923), 24, 25 (ill.).13

Yvonne Harpur, Decoration in Egyptian Tombs of the Old Kingdom: Studies in Orientation and Scene Content (London and New York: KPI, 1987), 354.14

Karen B. Alexander, “From Plaster to Stone: Ancient Art at the Art Institute of Chicago,” in Recasting the Past: Collecting and Presenting Antiquities at the Art Institute of Chicago, by Karen Manchester (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 2012), 38.15