Artwork
Menna and Family Hunting in the Marshes, Tomb of Menna
Menna and Family Hunting in the Marshes, Tomb of Menna is an unspecified painting by the Byzantine icon painting artist Nina M. Davies. It dates from 1400 and is held in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
About this work
Subject & Meaning
The scene pairs Menna with his wife and children in papyrus boats, capturing waterfowl with throwsticks and nets, while servants hold further hunting gear.
The wall painting depicts Menna and his family engaged in marshland fowling and fishing, a pursuit that underscores elite status and the bounty of the Nile's ecosystem. The scene pairs Menna with his wife and children in papyrus boats, capturing waterfowl with throwsticks and nets, while servants hold further hunting gear. Crocodiles and fish populate the marshes, signaling both danger and the fertility of the floodplain.
The tomb's decoration equates this activity with prosperity and piety, illustrating the tomb owner's ability to harness nature's gifts in accordance with Ma'at, the cosmic order. The inclusion of family members emphasizes lineage and the perpetuation of these values across generations.
History & Provenance
Menna and Family Hunting in the Marshes was commissioned for the Tomb of Menna (TT 69) in the Theban necropolis, created during the early Eighteenth Dynasty around 1400 BCE. The scene was documented and reconstructed as a facsimile by Nina de Garis Davies, who worked under the direction of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Egyptian Expedition. The facsimile, now held in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (accession 30.4.48), depicts the tomb owner Menna and his family engaged in marsh hunting, reflecting traditional elite funerary iconography.
Overview
This ancient Egyptian painting, found within the Tomb of Menna, depicts a vibrant scene of a family engaged in activities within a marshland environment. The composition features individuals both aboard a boat and positioned along the shoreline, surrounded by various forms of wildlife. The artwork employs a distinct palette of flat, bright colors, characteristic of the period, to render a detailed yet stylized portrayal of nature and human interaction.
Technique & Style
The artistic approach in this painting from Menna's tomb is characterized by its use of flat, unmodulated areas of color. A palette dominated by reds, blues, and greens contributes to the scene's vividness. Figures are rendered with clear outlines and minimal depth, a common stylistic choice in ancient Egyptian art that emphasizes clarity and symbolic representation over naturalistic illusion. The overall effect is one of decorative precision and narrative directness.
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…
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