Funeral Procession, Tomb of Pairy

Nina M. Davies produced this tempera facsimile of a funeral procession scene from the Tomb of Pairy in the Theban necropolis, preserving a New Kingdom Egyptian wall painting (c. 1390 BCE) for the Metropolitan Museum's documentary collection. Egyptian funerary art depicted elaborate burial rituals to ensure the deceased's successful passage to the afterlife, with processions of mourners, offerings, and ritual objects. Davies's systematic recording of these scenes has become increasingly valuable as the original paintings continue to deteriorate.

Rendered in tempera on paper, this facsimile captures the processional composition characteristic of Egyptian funerary art, with figures arranged in registers moving in profile toward the tomb. Davies faithfully reproduced the flat color fields, precise contour lines, and conventional figural proportions of the New Kingdom original.