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Panel

Title	Panel
Author	Unknown (maker)
Publication Place	Egypt (made) Cairo (made, probably) -
Type	Other
Language	Undetermined
Digital	Yes
Manuscript	No
Physical Dimensions	Length: 236cm (Maximum), Width: 58cm (Maximum)
Library:	Victoria and Albert Museum
Library Asset ID	ME.2-2023
Record ID	ME.2-2023
Library Location	Middle East Section
Notes	The craft of khayamiya (appliquÃ©) has a long tradition in Egypt. Historically, it was used to make large tents such as used for festivals, awnings and canopies. Panels such as these represent an adaptation of the craft in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, during the emergence of mass tourism to Egypt and the commercial opportunities this provided to craftsmen. Responding both to tourist numbers and the popularity of pharaonic design, tentmakers also started making panels with ancient designs, to attract this foreign market that associated Egypt primarily with its ancient past. In order to appeal to the international market, these panels deliberately played off of touristsâ ideas of Egypt, presenting an Orientalising view of an ancient and picturesque land of pharaohs, pyramids and indecipherable hieroglyphs. However, importantly, this was a view of Egypt engaged with and encouraged by the tentmakers themselves, and re-interpreted in their own terms. In other words, touristic khayamiya represented not just tourist perceptions of Egypt, but how tentmakers imagined tourist perceptions of Egypt. The visual sources used by khayamiya makers were similar to those accessible to Western tourists and which helped shape their visions of Egypt: postcards, illustrated guide books and art books, as much as the visible remains themselves. Although some motifs and designs were copied from specific monuments or tomb paintings, usually the tentmakers freely mixed and matched sequences of images from different sources, rendering them freely and schematically. Hieroglyphs became simpler, often illegible; designs which the craftsmen did not understand were mis-represented or improvised; and motifs which in the ancient canon would not necessarily be seen together were combined side-by-side to make new overall compositions, very similar to how European designers of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries treated Egyptian motifs. This free re-interpretation, as well as the frequent use of motifs like the winged vulture in ancient Egyptian art, can often make it hard to trace specific sources of inspiration for a khayamiya.
Malzemeler ve teknikler	Cotton appliquÃ© on linen backing Cotton (Textile)
Fiziksel açıklama	Panel with Pharaonic designs, made of panels of cotton fabric appliquÃ©d onto a heavy linen backing. The majority of the design on this panel is a large-scale, standing figure of a Pharaoh wearing a schematic representation of the white crown ( Hedjet ) of Upper Egypt, and holding a flail. The cartouches beside him, which are legibly represented, indicate the Pharaoh specifically as Seti I ( Men-Maat-Ra ), and his depiction here may be specifically based on a well-known image of the King from his temple at Abydos, although there Seti holds a mace rather than a flail. The pharaoh stands atop a temple pylon supported by two pillars. Inside this temple szene is a standing female figure holding an ankh, worshipping before a seated god intended to represent the falcon-headed Re-Horakhty.

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Victoria and Albert Museum

Panel

Author Unknown (maker)

Publication Place Egypt (made) Cairo (made, probably) -

Type Other

Language Undetermined

Digital Yes

Manuscript No

Physical Dimensions Length: 236cm (Maximum), Width: 58cm (Maximum)

Library Victoria and Albert Museum

Library Asset ID ME.2-2023

Record ID ME.2-2023

Library Location Middle East Section

Notes The craft of khayamiya (appliquÃ©) has a long tradition in Egypt. Historically, it was used to make large tents such as used for festivals, awnings and canopies. Panels such as these represent an adaptation of the craft in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, during the emergence of mass tourism to Egypt and the commercial opportunities this provided to craftsmen. Responding both to tourist numbers and the popularity of pharaonic design, tentmakers also started making panels with ancient designs, to attract this foreign market that associated Egypt primarily with its ancient past. In order to appeal to the international market, these panels deliberately played off of touristsâ ideas of Egypt, presenting an Orientalising view of an ancient and picturesque land of pharaohs, pyramids and indecipherable hieroglyphs. However, importantly, this was a view of Egypt engaged with and encouraged by the tentmakers themselves, and re-interpreted in their own terms. In other words, touristic khayamiya represented not just tourist perceptions of Egypt, but how tentmakers imagined tourist perceptions of Egypt. The visual sources used by khayamiya makers were similar to those accessible to Western tourists and which helped shape their visions of Egypt: postcards, illustrated guide books and art books, as much as the visible remains themselves. Although some motifs and designs were copied from specific monuments or tomb paintings, usually the tentmakers freely mixed and matched sequences of images from different sources, rendering them freely and schematically. Hieroglyphs became simpler, often illegible; designs which the craftsmen did not understand were mis-represented or improvised; and motifs which in the ancient canon would not necessarily be seen together were combined side-by-side to make new overall compositions, very similar to how European designers of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries treated Egyptian motifs. This free re-interpretation, as well as the frequent use of motifs like the winged vulture in ancient Egyptian art, can often make it hard to trace specific sources of inspiration for a khayamiya.

Fiziksel açıklama Panel with Pharaonic designs, made of panels of cotton fabric appliquÃ©d onto a heavy linen backing. The majority of the design on this panel is a large-scale, standing figure of a Pharaoh wearing a schematic representation of the white crown ( Hedjet ) of Upper Egypt, and holding a flail. The cartouches beside him, which are legibly represented, indicate the Pharaoh specifically as Seti I ( Men-Maat-Ra ), and his depiction here may be specifically based on a well-known image of the King from his temple at Abydos, although there Seti holds a mace rather than a flail. The pharaoh stands atop a temple pylon supported by two pillars. Inside this temple szene is a standing female figure holding an ankh, worshipping before a seated god intended to represent the falcon-headed Re-Horakhty.