Eight Ceiling Patterns, Tomb of Nebamun and Ipuky

Nina M. Davies was a twentieth-century British artist who created meticulous tempera facsimiles of ancient Egyptian tomb paintings for the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Graphic Section between the 1920s and 1950s. This reproduction of eight ceiling patterns from the Tomb of Nebamun and Ipuky in Thebes preserves decorative motifs from the New Kingdom period (c. 1390 BCE). Davies's facsimiles are invaluable records, as many original tomb paintings have since deteriorated significantly.

Executed in tempera on paper, this facsimile faithfully reproduces the geometric and floral ceiling patterns of the original tomb decoration. Davies employed careful color matching to replicate the ancient Egyptian pigments — Egyptian blue, yellow ochre, red ochre, and carbon black — in their characteristic flat, unmodeled application.