This fragment of a wall painting depicts the head
and shoulders of an elite official in the service of
pharaoh’s administration. In keeping with
ancient Egyptian artistic conventions, the face is
rendered in strict profile with the eye, here
hieroglyphically rendered, depicted in front view.
The eyebrow, in black, is a delicate example of
such a so-called cosmetic brow. He is wearing a
wig, painted black, but coiffed in such a way that
its small, tight curls lap his check. He is wearing
a tunic, woven from gossamer thin linen, its hem
fringed, as is evident from the detail along one
shoulder. His accessories include a broad collar
worn high up on the neck. In keeping with color
conventions, the elite official is depicted with
reddish brown skin tones. This distinguishes
men from women who are generally painted
yellow so that one is confident that the delicately
painted hand resting on his right shoulder is that
of his wife. This small detail is sufficient to
insure the reconstruction of the scene as the
elite official and his wife seated before an
offering table accompanied by male and female
banqueters in separate rows, a scene sequence
which is well-attested in tombs of Dynasty XVIII
at Thebes, from which this example doubtless
originates.
The elite official is shown holding a lotus
blossom to his nose. Within the repertoire of
coded symbols in ancient Egyptian art, the lotus
is often substituted for the ankh, or life-sign,
because both words were homonyms, that is
they sounded alike when pronounced in ancient
Egyptian. Because only the gods could be
visually represented presenting the ankh-sign to
the nose of pharaoh, elite officials took the
artistic liberty of “granting life to their nose” by
portraying themselves sniffing the lotus.
Many of today’s adherents of aromatherapy look
beyond this coded message in such scenes and
suggest as well that the ancient Egyptian elite
were aware of the powers inherent in natural
fragrances. As a result, they theorize that the
ancient Egyptians were truly pioneers in
aromatherapy.
Charles K. Wilkinson, Egyptian Wall Paintings. The
Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Collection of
Facsimiles (catalogue by Marsha Hill) (New York
1983), page 100, accession number 15.5.8, a
scene from the Theban Tomb (45) of Djehuty,
who served under Amenhotep II of Dynasty XVIII,
which shows Djehuty wearing the same broad
collar and sniffing the lotus in exactly the same
way with his wife to the left, her hand identically
resting on his shoulder. Both are seated before a
table piled high with offerings.
Ibid, page 128, accession numbers 34.4.104,
106, and 107, vignettes from the Theban Tomb
of Nebamun and Ipuky who served under
Amenhotep III and his son and successor,
Amenhotep IV, the monotheist pharaoh better
known as Akhenaten, for the curly wig. It is to
this period that our wall painting is to be dated.
Lise Mannich, Sacred Luxuries. Fragrance,
Aromatherapy, and Cosmetics in Ancient Egypt
(Ithaca 1999), for a critical assessment of the
Egyptian contribution to aromatherapy, with a
extended passages spanning virtually the entire
volume devoted to the lotus (pages 12, 22, 49,
62, 76, 78, passim)
A. Lhote, Les chefs d'oeuvre de la peinture
egyptienne, 1954; and
A. Mekhitarian, La peinture egyptienne, Skira,
1978.
