Tomb Wall Fragment Depicting Abdu and Reputka with Offering Bearers

Leaning on a tall staff that marks his high social status, Abdu stands beside his wife, Reputka. Such portraits, showing the deceased with idealized rather than individualized faces and bodies, were commonly used in the tomb chapels of upper-class Egyptians. The artisans who decorated these chambers worked from a canon of scenes and poses depicting daily life, family, and religious imagery. Fashions changed over time, but some scenes—such as the image of a wife embracing her husband with one arm, used here and in the fragmentary statue at right—were standard for thousands of years. Names and titles written in hieroglyphs around Abdu’s and Reputka’s heads personalize the images of the eternally youthful couple.