OLD KINGDOM, 4th DYNASTY

c. 2600 BCE

The Geese of Meidum

Stucco, painted, height 27 cm, length 172 cm

Cairo, Egyptian Museum

Three pairs of geese are grazing in front of a pastel-coloured In this same tomb is also the
larger depiction of a go0se hunt
background between flowering tufts of grass. This is probably the with nets in the Nile delta, in other words a scene
taken from the
oldest surviving painting in the typical "Egyptian style", and its fresh-
Egyptians' everyday lives. This was something new: until then artists
ness and perfection still surprise us today. For this reason the picture had been satisfied with decorating tomb walls with
could be
depictions of richly
thought of as the climax of centuries-long artistic develop- laid sacrificial tables. The piles of victuals also
always contained geese,
ment, but in actual fact it dates from the very beginning of Egyptian between all the legs of oxen, bread, and pyramids of fruit. They were a
painted art. This frieze was painted as a grave decoration during the traditional gift to a deceased person, because they played an
Old Kingdom under Pharaoh Sneferu, the founder of the 4th dynasty portant role in the Egyptians' menu. The migratory birds were caught
im
and the father of the famous Khufu
(Cheops). and fattened when they settled in the delta during the winter months
What at first glance appears to be a realistic depiction of nature In the grave pictures servants are busy stuffing live geese with flour
is in truth strictly composed. This frieze
already displays the features dumplings, and plucking dead ones.
that were also characteristic of the
Egyptian art of later centuries: styl- Not only the style of representation but also the paintingtech
ization, idealization, and representation in profile. The six birds were
nique was only to change slightly over the following milennia n9e
not Simply drawn in a line,
they were symmetrically arranged. Two The background consists of a light layer of stucco over a nick iay
greylag geese with long wave-like, brownish feathers and red beaks of
are looking to the lett with raised heads. Two red-breasted geese with
clay plaster. The tempera paints were made from natural era
materials: black from coal, blue and green from maachie, nd

Scale-like, grey feathers and white beaks have their backs turned an
to yellow from ochre soil. They were dissolved in water and
do
them. On each side of the frieze one larger greylag
goose is grazing emulsion of glue and egg white. The dark pink spot On u
with its head down,
facing away from the centre of the frieze. All the breast was created through a clever mixture ot the two P
anaveDeen porrayed from the side. They are ideal, perfect red and black. Egyptian artists did not sign their works, thus the nan
geese that fit into the afterlife fields of
grave decoration. Their
a
of the master of the Geese of Meidum is unknow
arrangement into two groups of three surely is not coincidental: in
Egyptian writing a plural is indicated by three lines or triple
tions. The Geese of Meidum thus stand representa
for an undetermined number
of birds.
"know. the position
The frieze was discovered in 1871
of a captured bird"
by the French
Egyptologist The artist Irtisen his grave stele from the
11th dynasty
Auguste Mariette: it decorated a passageway leading to the burial
on

chamber of Nefer-maat's wife Itet. Nefer-maat was

the name of one of
Sneferu's sons. It was Sneferu who had a
around 75 kilometres
pyramid erected in Meidum,
upstrean from Cairo. This pyramid
is now par
tially collapsed. Surrounding the pyramid are the brick tombs
built for
courtiers and officials., This is also where
vite ltet were buried, prince Nefer-maat and his
The Geese of Meldum, general vlew