The tombs of the nobles at Thebes are filled with brightly painted images of men and women going about their daily tasks and coping with the certainty of death. Before color photography, the only way to record these fragile images was by copies in tempera. Foremost among the artists of these tempera paintings are Norman and Nina de Garis Davies, a British couple who worked for the Museum from 1907 well into the 1930s, living in a small house in the middle of the tombs.

Tempera conveys the flow and texture of the original paintings. And the works you see here have two special advantages over color photography: they have the immediacy of originals done by an artist’s hand; and in many cases, the tombs were better preserved in the 1920s and 30s than they are today.

This scene is from the tomb of the overseers of sculptors, Nebamun and Ipuki. At different times each was married to the same woman, Henutnefret. We see her on the right as a young woman caressing the feet of Ipuki’s mummy. When Nebamun died, she was much older. Crouching at the feet of his mummy, she casts dust on her head in the universal sign of mourning. This painting is by Charles K. Wilkinson, who was a member of the Davies’ team and later became curator of Ancient Near Eastern Art at the Metropolitan.