West wall of imperial cult chamber after conservation

Item Overview

Title

West wall of imperial cult chamber after conservation

Photographer

Vescovo, Arnaldo
Vescovo, Alessandro

Date Created

February-March 2009

Date

2009-02/2009-03

Collection

Luxor Roman Wall Paintings

Series

Post-conservation
ICC West Wall

Program

International Digital Ephemera Project

Notes

Contents note

Note: The images are ordered to reflect the sequence of the registers, from the topmost register; left to right, to the bottom registers; left to right.
Only an opus sectile design remains of the west wall decorative program. The design, which consists of a square panel containing “a six-lobed interlocking circle motif and two patches of the imitation verde cippolino” has been revealed by the project’s conservators and can be linked to page 26v of Wilkinson’s 19th-century documentations of the walls. A similar opus sectile motif was found on a different page of Wilkinson’s notebook which suggests that opus sectile designs were reused throughout the walls. Aside from the recovered section of opus sectile plaster, the first two layers of plaster are well preserved; showcasing the pick marks which allowed the conservators a deeper understanding of the original artisans’ process. There is a widespread belief that most of the wall was missing at the time of Wilkinson’s drawings, however, a small note on the bottom of page 26v might indicate otherwise. The note read “Mr. Monier told Mr. Harris that the name of Diocletian was on one of the chariot wheels in this fresco.” (McFadden 2015, 114-118).

Statement of Responsibility

Amenhotep III was responsible for constructing the greater part of the present Luxor Temple around 1400 BCE. Under Diocletian, Emperor of Rome, 245-313, the first Tetrarchy transformed the temple site, including one of the temple’s offering halls into what is now known as the imperial cult chamber. In the early 2000s, ARCE conducted several site visits to Luxor to extensively document the grounds and undertake conversation efforts for the Roman frescoes present in that chamber.

References

McFadden, Susanna. 2015. “The Luxor Temple Paintings in Context: Roman Visual Culture in Late Antiquity.” In Art of Empire: The Roman Frescoes and Imperial Cult Chamber in Luxor Temple, edited by Michael Jones and Susanna McFadden, 105-133, New Haven and London: Yale University Press.
Nelson number: 172. "Reliefs and Inscriptions at Luxor Temple, Vol. 2," The Epigraphic Survey, The Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago. https://oi.uchicago.edu/research/publications/oip/reliefs-and-inscriptions-luxor-temple-volume-2-facade-portals-upper

Physical Description

Extent

3 color photographs

Medium

Color 35mm slide

Keywords

Genre

color photographs
color slides

Subject Geographic

Luxor, Egypt

Subject Temporal

Tetrarchy
Late Roman Period
New Kingdom

Longitude

25.69887844151602

Latitude

32.63835620786517

Resource type

still image

Subjects

Egyptian hieroglyphs
Mural painting and decoration
Painting
Fresco painting
Altered in antiquity
Relief (Art)
Decoration and ornament
Temples
Geometric designs
Borders, Ornamental (Decorative arts)
Layered histories--material
Inscriptions
Art, Greco-Roman
opus sectile (visual works)