Stylistic Traces of Amarna Art in Reliefs of the Tomb of Petosiris (Tuna al Gebel Necropolis)

Abstract

The famous tomb of Petosiris (a high priest of Thoth) in the Tuna al Gebel necropolis on the outskirts of the Middle Egyptian town of Hermopolis Magna is dated by the last quarter of the 4th c. bc. The pictorial program of the tomb, decorated with painted reliefs, has no known parallels in Ptolemaic art. In terms of iconography and style the reliefs rely on both Egyptian and Greek artistic traditions. This study attempts to trace elements of the so-called Amarna style among the whole variety of cultural impacts that shaped the unique character of the reliefs. Not only the visual similarity but also the short distance between the necropoli in Hermopolis Magna and Amarna city support the impetus for looking for pictorial parallels between the reliefs of the Petosiris tomb and the Amarna monuments. Some distinct stylistic details of the reliefs find no matches in Egyptian art but for the Amarna period. Nor do they originate from Macedonian or provincial Greek art. The reliefs of the tomb of Petosiris seem to be the only extant piece of art of the Graeco-Roman period that goes back to Amarna tradition in terms of techniques, style and, to some extent, iconography. The styling of the reliefs relies on three distinct visual paradigms – Classical (namely archaic) Egyptian, Amarna and Hellenistic – and seems to depend on subject matters of the particular parts of the program. The stylistic features deriving from different traditions probably served as a special visual language that helped to convey important meanings and connotations.