Eight Ceiling Patterns, Tomb of Nebamun and Ipuky

Art Historical Context

In the vibrant world of ancient Egyptian art, *Eight Ceiling Patterns* from the Tomb of Nebun and Ipuky a stunning glimpse into New Kingdom splendor. Dating to around 1390–1349 B.C. during Dynasty 18, these designs adorned the ceiling of a tomb belonging to two high-ranking officials, likely scribes or administrators in the royal court. Such tombs, carved into the cliffs of western Thebes (modern Luxor), were elaborate afterlife homes meant to ensure eternal prosperity. The patterns—featuring repeating motifs of stars, lotuses, and geometric forms—symbolized the cosmos, rebirth, and divine protection, guiding the deceased through the starry Duat underworld. This precise 1:1 scale facsimile, created by pioneering Egyptologist Nina de Garis Davies in the early 20th century using tempera on paper, captures the originals' vivid colors and intricate details before time and environmental damage faded them. Davies, working with her husband Norman de Garis Davies, meticulously documented Theban tombs for institutions like the Metropolitan Museum of Art, preserving fragile masterpieces for posterity. Acquired through the Rogers Fund in 1930, this work highlights tempera's durable, egg-based pigments, ideal for replicating the fresco-like tomb paintings made with mineral colors on plaster. Today, it invites visitors to marvel at Egyptian artistry's blend of mathematics and mysticism, where every pattern echoed the Nile's cycles and pharaohs' power, bridging antiquity to our galleries.

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...