Funeral Procession, Tomb of Pairy

Art Historical Context

This striking facsimile captures a vibrant funeral procession from the Tomb of Pairy, dating to Egypt’s New Kingdom, Dynasty 18 (ca. 1390–1352 B.C.). Created by Nina de Garis Davies at a precise 1:1 scale in tempera on paper, it reproduces the original wall painting’s lively details, including men and women participants, coffins, and ritual elements typical of elite burials during this prosperous era of Egyptian history. Davies, renowned for her meticulous copies of Theban tomb art, worked alongside her husband Norman to document fragile monuments before further deterioration. Her facsimiles, such as this one acquired by the Metropolitan Museum in 1935, allow modern viewers to appreciate the artistic techniques and cultural significance of ancient Egyptian funerary scenes, which emphasized the journey to the afterlife through processions and offerings. As a work in the museum’s Egyptian Art department, it highlights both the solemn rituals of Dynasty 18 society and the value of early 20th-century preservation efforts that brought these vivid compositions to wider audiences.

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...