BIA

AVRIL 2015
onwards, indicating that it lived in or migrated
through Egypt at that time.
As for the argument about the colours,
Migâhid said the same shades have been found
in other tombs from the Fourth Dynasty and
later from the Old Kingdom. For instance, the
orange shade was used in the tomb of Queen
Mersyankh III in the eastern cemetery on the
Gîza Plateau, he said.
Inside the offertory chapel of the queen’s
tomb a scene with a procession of geese was
represented, he said, and one of them had an
orange beak in the same style as one of the
Maydûm Geese.
Concerning the size of the geese and
manner in which they were drawn, something
which in TIRADRITTI’s opinion was unusual,
Migâhid said that this was another false
argument. “Comparing this feature to the
cranes and geese depicted in the tomb of
Mersyankh III, we can see the birds are the
same size in this scene,” Migâhid said. He
added that it was usual in Old Kingdom tombs
for geese depicted in the same scene to be
shown the same size.
TIRADRITTI had claimed that the scene was
painted over another painting, which was why
the background had different colours in some
places, he said. However, no traces of the
supposed older scene can be seen, Migâhid
said, and TIRADRITTI had not said what kind of
scene the older one could be. A difference in
background colour might also have been the
result of older restoration.
“Not mentioning anything about the scene
does not mean that VASSALLI faked the Maydûm
Geese painting, as TIRADRITTI claims,” Migâhid
told the Weekly, adding that notes of the
discovery had also been kept by VASSALLI’s
colleagues.
According to Albert DANINOS, the deputy of
Egyptologist Auguste MARIETTE at the time,
VASSALLI had moved the Maydûm Geese painting
from the tomb’s corridor “with marvellous
patience and care.” PETRIE, another
contemporary who was not an admirer of his
colleagues, claimed that VASSALLI had “hacked
away much of the fresco” to remove the
painting.
It is known from MARIETTE’s records of the
Maydûm excavation in 1871 that the work was
not always carefully done, since much of his
attention was given to the mastaba of Rahotep
and Nefret where he found the two famous
statues of the owners of the tomb that are
today in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.
TIRADRITTI also mentioned another painting,
which in his view could have been done by
VASSALLI. This is a fragment depicting the
remains of two hieroglyphic letters, a basket
with a handle that represents the hieroglyph K
and a vulture that represents the hieroglyph A.
TIRADRITTI said that these two signs were
intended as a reference to VASSALLI’s second
wife Gigliati ANGIOLA.
However, Migâhid said that if the context of
the tomb was studied it would be clear that
these two signs were perhaps the remains of
the names of Nefermaat and Atet’s son Serfka.
The names appear in the tomb a number of
times.
“Moreover, the scene of the Maydûm Geese
and the hieroglyphs come from the north wall
of the east corridor inside the chapel of Atet,
where a large figure of Serfka was depicted
standing and catching birds amid an
agricultural scene,” Migâhid said.
It should also not be forgotten that when
VASSALLI removed the painting of the Maydûm
Geese from the north wall of the corridor, he
cut into the scenes above and below the
painting to make sure that the geese would
not be damaged during this process, he said.
Therefore, traces of feet, a hand and the
top of a hieroglyph were preserved on the
outside edges of the panel. “The rest of the
wall decoration was affected by this action,” he
said.
Migâhid said that the tomb of Nefermaat,
the son of the pharaoh Huni and his wife Atet,
was the largest known tomb from the Old
Kingdom, and Nefermaat was the earliest
known Egyptian vizier to be attested.
As a result, scholars should be careful
about doubting one of the most beautiful
ancient Egyptian works of art and should take
into consideration the wider context of the
BIA LI — Janvier/Juin 2015 84