Downton Abbey

Pencil and biro drawing, scanned and coloured in photoshop, with a papyrus texture overrlayed from---George Herbert, 5th Earl of Carnarvon (1866-1923), was the patron of Howard Carter and of the expedition that discovered the tomb of Tutankhamun in the Valley of the Kings, in Egypt. He was also the first victim of the supposed curse on that tomb, dying shortly after its violation. The sory is that he was bitten on the cheek by a mosquoito that flew out of the tomb, and later picked up an infection while shaving and nicking the bite mark. At the moment of his death the lights flickered out in Cairo, and his dog, Susie, back home in England (in his ancestral homeHighclere Castle) howled and also dropped down dead.So I was thinking of replicating an Egyptian book of the dead, but I wanted to do something a bit quirky rather than a complete pastiche. The idea of representing Lord Carnarvon's encounter with the Egyptian gods of judgment in the afterlife occurred to me. Here Carnarvon's heart is found to weigh more than the feather of truth, which does not bode well for his soul. Seems he breeched one of the 42 Commandments, specifically number XXXIII, against stealing from the dead...The agrieved Tuthankhamun appears before Osiris, the lord of the Undeworld, testifying against the defendant. Ammit, the devourer of souls licks her lips.