The Wall Paintings of the Chapel-Tomb of Nebamun ✎

The British Museum has some of the most exquisite collections of Ancient art.

The chapel-tomb of Nebamun is a masterpiece.

Nebamun was an ancient Egyptian official and scribe. Today, he is famous for the incredible discovery of the richly decorated - and now lost - Tomb of Nebamun in Thebes. The tomb’s walls were covered with high-quality fresco paintings considered by scholars to be the chef-d’oeuvre of ancient Egyptian art.

The paintings are incredible, especially when you realise they were painted around 1350 BC - making it over 3,370 years old! 😎

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Nebamun Hunting in the Marshes by Master of the Tomb of Nebamun

So beautiful.

Nebamun is depicted hunting in the marshes, powerful and strong. In his small raft, with his wife Hatshepsut next to him, and their young daughter holding onto him.

What marks this art as remarkable is its move away from rigid formal stylised depictions of the Old Kingdom to more lifelike and sensory art.

The ginger cat catching three birds at once in the papyrus thicket is iconic.

It reminds me of modern art.

 

Cats, ducks, fowl, pigeons, butterflies all around Nebamun.

With hunting device in one hand, and other filled with geese. 

As the British Museum notes:

Fertile marshes were a place of rebirth and eroticism, making this more than a simple image of recreation. The huge striding figure of Nebamun dominates, forever happy and forever young, surrounded by the rich and teening life of the marsh. Hunting not only supplied food but represented Nebamun’s triumph over the forces of chaos.

Me, Room 61.

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Surveying the fields for Nebamun by Master of the Tomb of Nebamun

This scene shows an official inspecting fields.

Nebamun was the accountant in charge of grain at the great Temple of Amun at Thebes (Karnak).

Chariot awaiting.

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Nebamun’s Garden of the West by Master of the Tomb of Nebamun

Nebamun’s garden in the afterlife is like his beautiful earthly gardens of ancient Egypt.

Pool is full of birds and fish, surrounded by of flowers and trees.

Sycamore-figs, date palms. 

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Offering bringers by Master of the Tomb of Nebamun

A procession of servants bringing food offerings for Nebamun: grain and desert animals.

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Offerings for Nebamun by Master of the Tomb of Nebamun

This painting displays a massive lavish pile of food meant to sustain Nebamun in the afterlife.

A roast duck, joints of meat, wine jars, baskets of seeds and fruits, loafs of bread.

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A feast for Nebamun by Master of the Tomb of Nebamun

Entire painting dedicated to a lively gathering in honor of Nebamun. His friends and family being served wine and entertained.

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More Information:

• Paintings from the Tomb-chapel of Nebamun by The British Museum (smarthistory)

A Bakewell Cake at the British Museum ✎

 

I was treating myself at the British Museum.  

I like this photo. 😊

Portrait of Pope Julius II by Raphael (1511–1512) ✎

Captivating.

I’ve seen this portrait so many times, but I’ll never forget my initial shock when first encountering it.

It’s very interesting that Vasari (thirty years after the death of Raphael) wrote of this portrait “it was so lifelike and true it frightened everyone who saw it, as if it were the living man himself.”

For me, the painting has a disarming intimacy and sense of pathos which is executed with Raphael’s technical brilliance.

The artistic details are bewildering: the soft white ermine fur on the red-velvet mozzetta, camauro to match, subtle flesh tones and rings, crisp & starched white surplice etc. The dark green background hides an interesting backstory. 

Pope Julius II was a scary Pope. He had a horrible temper and lead armies into battle himself! And yet, he is depicted as a tired elderly man in a moment of some melancholic reflection. His downward gaze, dejected bearing, distant and worried eyes, the grip on his chair. It is down to his military defeat at the hands of the French.

The previous Pope was Pope Pius III and below (it seems) is his portrait:

Raphael’s portrait is thus revolutionary - very intimate with a three-quarter view turned away from us (in contemplation).

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More on YouTube from the National Gallery talk by Matthias Wivel:

A Moai Statue (Hoa Hakananai'a) by Rapa Nui Carver (1000–1200 AD) ✎

I saw this terrific Moai statue at the British Museum.

This one is known as Hoa Hakananai'a. What is striking is its massive scale. Stoic and powerful.

These are massive human figures carved from volcanic tuff by the Rapa Nui people on Easter Island (Island of Chile) between roughly 1250 and 1500 AD.

This Moai was carved from a dense hard basalt! Incredible. 

Madonna and Child with St. Zenobius, St. John the Baptist, St. Anthony and St. Francis of Assisi by Francesco Pesellino (1450s) ✎

I saw this lovely painting at the Louvre.

Pesellino was a bridge between the delicate & ornate International Gothic style of the Middle Ages and the more structured Early Renaissance.

Pesellino was, in his day, doing some cutting-edge art for the 1450s.

The halos are still the traditional “gold disks”. By the time we reach the High Renaissance, they’re turned into thin golden hoops or disappeared entirely. The linear perspective is clear, and faces bear a subdued expression (the sacrifice of Christ) as opposed to the earlier distinctly-stylised Gothic faces. There is a somber tone.

St. John the Baptist announces the coming of the Messiah by pointing at the Child and directing the viewer’s attention towards the spiritual meaning of the work. I noticed some faint anatomical signs in the arm (blood vessels) which obviously marks it out as a humanist-renaissance painting.