A feast for Nebamun, the bottom half of a scene from the tomb-chapel of Nebamun

An entire wall of the tomb-chapel showed a feast in honour of Nebamun. Naked serving-girls and servants wait on his friends and relatives. Married guests sit in pairs on fine chairs, while the young women turn and talk to each other. This erotic scene of relaxation and wealth­ is something for Nebamun to enjoy for all eternity.

All the guests wear elaborate linen clothes. The artists have painted the cloth as if it were transparent, to show that it is very fine. These elegant sensual dresses fall in loose folds around the guests’ bodies.

The young men sit on rows of stools, beside a group of young women who sit on chairs with cushions. Men and women’s skins are painted in different colours: the men are tanned and the women are paler. In one place the artists altered the drawing of these wooden stools and corrected their first sketch with white paint.