Visual Indexicality in the Private Tomb Chapels of the Theban Necropolis: On Flipping Iconographic Units as a Compositional Tool

“Copies” of visual representations are abundant in ancient Egyptian iconographic environments such as the private necropoleis. The intericonic relationship(s) that they share with their model(s) form a wide web that constitutes a large part of the so‐called repertoire. While they almost always include variation, their creators sometimes used to flip them during the composition process so that they present as the inverted version of their respective model. From an image reception perspective it could be relevant to examine their possible citational value in terms of either quotative or inferential evidentials, taking into account the beholder’s role in the actualisation of such indexical potential. To that end, the article aims to explore the value we, as Egyptologists, confer to these images and balance it with ancient outlooks, particularly that of the audience(s) which the creators targeted (on behalf of patrons and commissioners). The context of the private tomb chapels of the New Kingdom Theban necropolis is an ideal iconographic environment to explore in this regard. Among several concepts which could be easily applied to other iconographic environ‐ ments and visual cultures, the article proposes to distinguish between usual instantiations of iconographic models, sometimes referred to as standards, and “identifying‐copies” (following Den Doncker 2017). As they carry a strong connection to the identity of the model’s owner, these identifying‐copies were therefore most probably conceived to implement their commissioner’s visual rhetoric of self‐fashioning.