The funerary chapel of Maya was discovered in 1906 by Ernesto Schiaparelli’s archaeological mission in the necropolis of Deir el-Medina, a few meters from the tomb of Kha. Egyptian wall painting was applied a tempera. In Maya’s chapel, the mudbrick walls were covered with a plaster of fresh mud and straw, painted after drying. The colors, produced from minerals and vegetables (ocher for red and yellow, charcoal for black, limestone carbonate for white, malachite for blue and green), were mixed with water and gum Arabic as a blinder. The paintings of this chapel are axceptionally preserved, although not in their entirety. They were skilfully removed to be brought to Italy by the restorer Fabrizio Lucarini in 1906. Lucarini managed to detach the painted plaster from the walls and ceiling using a technique called “strappo”, which involves gluing canvas onto the painted surface to keep it together while the painting is removed. These canvases were then moistened with a solvent to take them off. This process, although it requires great skill, does not require cutting out the plaster and to preserve the painting to the utmost.
