Charles K. Wilkinson (1897–1986)

I remember being in the Egyptian wing of some large museum – the Met or the British Museum, probably – and seeing an exhibit on faked Egyptian antiquities. The interesting thing was many of the fakes from earlier generations were obvious – but the fakes from my lifetime looked just like the real thing. That was one of the points; each generation has its own idea of what Egyptian art (and, presumably, any art) is supposed to look like and reproductions that conform to that idea will be accepted.


So it is with Egyptian Wall Paintings. Egyptologists have always been concerned about the disappearance of Egyptian tomb paintings – from vandalism, looting, or just plain wear and tear – and before color photography the only way to preserve them was copying by skilled artists. Starting in 1910 the Metropolitan Museum of Art started a program to copy tomb paintings in the Theban area, which continued until photography became adequate to record things better, cheaper, and faster. Egyptian Wall Paintings includes a selection in full color, and the entire collection in black and white, with provenance and catalog number. As a reference and as a challenge for budding Egyptologists to try their hand at translating hieroglyphs, the book’s excellent; but somehow the facsimiles don’t look quite right to me. Something about the colors; the museum copyists used tracing paper to outline the paintings full size, then filled in the colors. The paints chosen just don’t quite match the originals - understandable, I suppose, as the alternative would be to prepare authentic pigments and put them on with reed brushes. Maybe the medium is also at fault; paper takes paint differently than plaster or gesso.


Eventually I expect facsimiles will be the only way to view most of the Egyptian tombs; the interiors are just too delicate. The tomb of Tutankhamun has already been scanned and replicated; the replica was due to be installed in the Valley of the Kings before things went to Amduat in a handbasket in Egypt. I’ve been in Tutankhamun’s tomb on a day when it was 130° in Luxor and can testify that the combination of heat, humidity and tourists’ body effluvia was not conducive to detailed Egyptology; still, it won’t quite be the same thing. OTOH, if various tombs and smaller artifacts are being scanned in you could theoretically make personal copies if you had an appropriate 3D printer; if you do and I’m still around I’ll come by and make the appropriate offerings to your ka.
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