Wood and Leather Craftsmen, Tomb of Hapu

Art Historical Context

Step into the bustling workshops of ancient Egypt with *Wood and Leather Craftsmen from the Tomb of Hapu*. This vivid facsimile captures a scene from around 1400–1390 B.C., during the New Kingdom's 18th Dynasty, when Egypt was at the height of its imperial power under pharaohs like Amenhotep III. on the tomb walls, it depicts skilled men at work—shaping wood and crafting leatherhighlighting the essential trades that supported royal building projects and daily life along the Nile. These tomb scenes held profound cultural significance, serving as magical provisions for the afterlife. By illustrating everyday labors, they ensured the deceased's eternal sustenance and continuity of skills in the underworld. The original frescoes, executed in vibrant mineral pigments on plaster, exemplify the refined New Kingdom style: dynamic figures in profile, hierarchical scaling, and meticulous detail that conveys motion and expertise. In the early 20th century, artist Nina de Garis Davies meticulously recreated this wall painting at full 1:1 scale using tempera on paper, preserving its colors and composition before time faded the originals. Acquired by The Metropolitan Museum of Art through the Rogers Fund in 1930, this work in the Egyptian Art department invites us to appreciate both ancient ingenuity and modern dedication to cultural heritage.

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...