Ceiling Fragment , Tomb of Intef

Art Historical Context

This delicate *Ceiling Fragment* from the Tomb of Intef offers a glimpse into the opulent afterlife beliefs of ancient Egypt's New Kingdom. Dating to around 1479–1458 B.C. during Dynasty 18—the era of powerful pharaohs like Thutmose III—the original decoration adorned the ceiling of Intef's tomb, likely featuring intricate patterns of stars, lotuses, or geometric motifs symbolizing the eternal sky and rebirth. Such tomb ceilings were designed to guide the deceased's soul through the heavens, blending astronomy, mythology, and artistry in vibrant frescoes painted directly on plaster with mineral pigments for lasting brilliance. Artist Nina de Garis Davies meticulously recreated this fragment in tempera on paper around the early 20th century, preserving fading ancient colors with watercolor-like precision. Her facsimile, just 20 x 20 cm, captures the Egyptians' mastery of flat, symbolic compositions where bold outlines and vivid blues, reds, and golds evoked cosmic harmony. Acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art via the Rogers Fund in 1948, it exemplifies how modern scholarship revives lost wonders, inviting us to ponder the ingenuity of a civilization obsessed with immortality. (Word count: 198)

About the Artist

Nina de Garis Davies · 1881–1965

Nina de Garis Davies, born Anna Macpherson Cummings on January 6, 1881, in Salonika, Greece, to English-Scottish parents Cecil J. Cummings and Sarah Macintosh Tannoch, showed early artistic talent as the eldest of three daughters. After her father's death in 1894, the family relocated to Scotland and then London, where she trained at the Slade School of Art. In 1906, at age 25, a holiday trip to E...