Detail of a Bull from a Procession of Offering Bearers
1914; original ca. 1390–1352 B.C.
Medium
Tempera on paper
Dimensions
Facsimile H. 39 cm (15 3/8 in); w. 44.5 cm (17 1/2 in); scale 1:1; Framed H. 40.6 cm (16 in); w. 46.4 cm (18 1/4 in)
Classification
Facsimile, TT 226, offering procession, bull
Period
Twentieth Century; original New Kingdom
Department
Egyptian Art
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Rogers Fund, 1915
Accession Number
15.5.2
Tags
Art Historical Context
This striking facsimile captures a detail of a bull from an ancient Egyptian procession of offering bearers, originally painted on the walls of a New Kingdom tomb during Dynasty 18 (ca. 1390–1352 B.C.). Such scenes were essential in funerary contexts, depicting abundant gifts of food and livestock to sustain the deceased in the afterlife. The bull, rendered with careful attention to its muscular form and decorative markings, reflects the Egyptians’ deep reverence for animals as symbols of strength, fertility, and divine power. Created in 1914 by Nina de Garis Davies, a pioneering artist renow...
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...