Artwork
Hunting Scene, Tomb of Ineni
Hunting Scene, Tomb of Ineni is an unspecified painting by Nina M. Davies. It dates from 1550 and is held in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Nina M.
About this work
Overview
Nina M. Davies’s watercolor reproduces a hunting tableau originally painted on the wall of the Tomb of Ineni, a high‑ranking official from the early 18th Dynasty (circa 1550 BCE). The image captures a coordinated chase involving a dog, spearmen, and several animals, rendered in the flat palette and simplified forms characteristic of the period’s tomb decoration.
Subject & Meaning
The scene illustrates a communal hunt: a collared dog pursues a striped animal while two figures wield spears, one of which is also held by a nearby deer. The inclusion of both predator and prey, together with the spear‑leaning against a tree, reflects the Egyptian emphasis on order, teamwork, and the provision of game for the afterlife.
Technique & Style
Davies employed a limited range of pigments—black, brown, red, and gray—to mirror the original’s flat coloration, avoiding chiaroscuro or modeling. The composition relies on bold outlines and geometric silhouettes, giving the figures a cut‑out appearance that emphasizes their symbolic rather than naturalistic qualities.
History & Provenance
Created in the early‑mid 20th century, the watercolor was part of the collaborative documentation work of Nina M. Davies and her husband Norman de Garis Davies, who recorded Egyptian wall paintings for scholarly publication under the joint name N. de Garis Davies. The piece entered the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s collection, where it serves as a reference for the tomb’s original decoration.
Context
The Tomb of Ineni, located at Saqqara, contains a series of hunting scenes that were typical of elite burial chambers in the early New Kingdom. Such depictions were intended to demonstrate the tomb owner’s status, martial skill, and ability to secure sustenance in the afterlife, aligning with broader Egyptian funerary conventions.
Artist & collection
Artist
The Egyptologists Nina M. Davies (6 January 1881 – 21 April 1965) and Norman de Garis Davies (1865–5 November 1941) were a married couple of illustrators and copyists who worked in the early and mid-twentieth century…
Menna and Family Hunting in the Marshes, Tomb of Menna
Amenhotep III and his Mother, Mutemwia, in a Kiosk
Queen Nefertari Playing Senet
Preparing Dough, Tomb of Rekhmire
Nakhtamun's Funeral Procession, Tomb of Nakhtamun
Ramesses III and Prince Amenherkhepeshef before Hathor
Sifting Meal, Tomb of Rekhmire
Funeral Procession, Tomb of Pairy
