Perspective in Egyptian Bread Paintings

Egyptian bread perspective with hand

This painting, in tomb TT69, may offer us a way to understand the perspective the artist used in depicting breads on offering tables. What you see here is a common concept in tomb and temple art. The depiction of foodstuffs, often with bread on the bottom layer, displayed on an offering table. The offering tables were made of stone.

One of the challenges in interpreting Egyptian bread is to work out what the patterning means. The woman’s hand touching the disk-shaped bread on the left suggests to me that the breads are being depicted as the looked to the artist lined up vertically, the way a baker might display breads in a shop.

If you have an opinion on what the perspective is, please leave your idea in the comments, below. Thank you.

One Comment Add yours

  1. Pamela says:

    If I stare at the image long enough, the items in the center appear to be arranged on a tabletop: the cone-shaped containers are lying down as is the bird, the “lemon squeezer”is on its side, and the loves are facing upward.

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