Pharaoh’s Offerings
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12×12 Oil on Linen
© Margret E. Short 2009
Lessons from the Pharaoh’s Tomb
Lawrence Gallery, Portland, Oregon September & October 2009
The ancient Egyptians loved their gardens passionately. To return after death and rest in the shade and eat the fruit from the trees they had planted was a common prayer. Historians have found offering lists along with food in tombs. In the tomb at Sakhara there was a meal laid out in totality. Each item was placed in a separate dish, dried, and remains today. These offering lists divided foods into categories; breads and cakes, meats, poultry, and lastly fruit and drinks.
My offering list in Pharaoh’s Offeringsincludes grapes, peaches, figs, and orchids. They are symbolic of what the pharaoh might have offered to the gods upon his death. The brilliant red scarf was purchased during a trip to Italy in 2003, but because the design includes a border of papyrus reeds it was befitting of this painting. Red iron oxide, madder, ochres, white, black were used throughout. The whites of the orchids were depicted using my favorite combination of yellow ochre and black for the various shades necessary to portray depth. Adding small amounts of malachite to the ochre created a perfect cool white for the lightest lights.
Lawrence Gallery, Portland, Oregon
