Yellow is freely laid on, and the raw tones of the reds and blues are suggestive of the early daubs of our childhood.
Mediocrity ere long reigned supreme, the outlines becoming more feeble, the colour more and more glaring, till the latest tombs are but caricatures of those of Seti I.and Rameses III.

The decoration is always the same, and is based on the same principles as the decoration of the pyramids.

At Thebes as at Memphis, the intention was to secure to the Double the free enjoyment of his new abode, and to usher the Soul into the company of the gods of the solar cycle and the Osirian cycle, as well as to guide it through the labyrinth of the infernal regions.

But the Theban priests exercised their ingenuity to bring before the eyes of the deceased all that which the Memphites consigned to his memory by means of writing, thus enabling him to see what he had formerly been obliged to read upon the walls of his tomb.
Where the texts of the pyramid of Unas relate how Unas, being identified with the sun, navigates the celestial waters or enters the Fields of Aalu, the pictured walls of the tomb of Seti I.show Seti sailing in the solar bark, while a side chamber in the tomb of Rameses III.

shows Rameses III.
in the Fields of Aalu (fig.