Egyptian Triptych is a painting by Dutch artist Jean Thomassen (born 5 September 1949), whose unusual and unpredictable paintings have made him an international leader in the genre of 'absurd realism'. He lives in Heiloo in the Netherlands. Thomassen's interest in ancient Egypt dates back to his earliest memories and in later life inspired a number of typically imaginative paintings. As a small child, he remembered a mysterious cupboard containing old colour picture cards of King Tutankhamen. Later, the family moved to a house near a shop selling Egyptian antiquities, further stimulating his deep interest in ancient Egypt. The painting is of a type known as a triptych, with a central panel and wings on either side. Painted in 1995, Egyptian Triptych was Thomassen's largest-ever painting at that time. It was destroyed in 2005 in a disastrous fire. Centre panel In the centre background, a pyramid immediately sets the scene in ancient Egypt, together with lop-sided temple pylons and bent obelisks. Ancient columns carry paintings of Egyptian deities and a group of mummified cats is shown at their foot in black-top pottery jars. The bird on top of one of the columns is the Ibis of Thoth, the ancient Egyptian god associated with divine knowledge and writing. Numerous matches are strewn incongruously at the bottom left of the painting and the heads of further matches appear on a dam in the centre in front of which is a partially submerged blue faience hippopotamus covered in Nilotic plants. The plinth in the distance carries a scarab beetle, the symbol of renewal and rebirth. Left wing The beautifully painted figure in the foreground is one of two in Egyptian Triptych that uses the body of Thomassen's muse and partner Ine Veen (the other can be seen in the right wing of the painting). The small bronze cat on a plinth behind her represents the goddess Bastet who was associated with protection, pleasure and the bringer of good health. A number of shabtis - figurines placed in the tombs of the ancient Egyptians to work for the deceased in the afterlife - lie scattered on the ground. The adjacent shabti box carries an inscription showing the shabtis contained within were for the God's Wife of Amen, Maat-ka-Re. Behind the bronze cat is a sistrum, an ancient Egyptian percussion instrument that produced a soothing sound when shaken that was supposed to appease the gods.