Die Funktion der Hilfslinien im Grab des Pepi-anch Heni-kem (Meir A2)

Guidelines in Egyptian drawings often are considered as having been the means of obtaining correct proportions of the human body. A close examination of surviving examples dating to the Old Kingdom, however, proves that they were used as mere technical aids to the artist enabling him to get on with his work. In tombs of the 5th and 6th dynasties guidelines can be seen mostly in decorations where a single motif had to be drawn repeatedly at the same scale, such as stars at the ceiling of royal tomb chambers, zigzag lines representing water, or long rows of offering bearers in front of the tomb owner. For some of these motifs - usually geometrical patterns - the artists already used grids. For human figures shown in an upright position they used several horizontal lines passing through key points of the body (the knees, the buttocks, the elbows, the armpits, the neck, the hairline, sometimes also the crown of the head and the calves), in most cases also a vertical line running through each figure, roughly dividing it into two halves. The well-preserved drawings in Room F of Pepi-ankh Heni-kem's tomb in Meir clearly show that the Old Kingdom guidelines -like the grid during the Middle and New Kingdom - could be used for a well balanced composition of large scenes. Obviously, the artist not only adjusted the main figures to the horizontal lines but also those on a smaller scale as well as architectural elements, minor objects, and even inscriptions.