Displaying Tools. On the Named Artists Depicted with a Palette

Abstract This paper aims to offer an overview of ancient Egyptian artists’ representations with a palette in two-dimensional scenes that occurred in eight tombs during a limited time window, i.e. , from mid-Dynasty 18 to the Ramesside Period. By connecting these “(auto)portraits à la palette” via a chronological analysis, the article paves the way for a comprehensive study of this specific iconographic shorthand to signal a sš-ḳdw.t ’s identity, closely related to an artist’s definition of themselves within their own social world. In so doing, they blurred the line of our modern distinction between “scribes” and “draftsmen.”