Amenhotep is a Genoa velvet of real magnificence, depicting the royal craftsman Nakhtamon dressed in the leopard skin worn by the priests of the cult of Amenhotep I, pouring a libation to Osiris. The scene is carried entirely in the pile — figure, skin and offering rendered in the depth and shear of the velvet. It is narrative weaving of the grandest kind, an Egyptian ceremony held permanently in cloth.
