New Year Gift: Mirror
A.D. 1913; original ca. 1427–1400 B.C.
Medium
Tempera on paper
Dimensions
H. 26.5 cm (10 7/16 in); w. 15.5 cm (6 1/8 in), scale 1:1, framed with 30.4.177 and .180
Classification
Facsimile, Qenamun (TT 93), mirror; Drink-and-be-Merry; New-Year-Gift2
Period
Twentieth Century; original New Kingdom
Department
Egyptian Art
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Rogers Fund, 1930
Accession Number
30.4.179
Tags
Art Historical Context
Welcome to the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Egyptian Art collection, where Norman de Garis Davies' *New Year Gift: Mirror (A.D. 1913) brings ancient revelry to life. This tempera-on-paper facsimile, at a 1: scale (26.5 15.5 cm copies a wall painting from Egypt's New Kingdom, Dynasty18 (ca. 1427–1400 B.C.). Davies, a pioneering Egyptologist, created these works to preserve fading tomb decorations, offering modern viewers an intimate glimpse into pharaonic splendor. The scene captures the festive "Drink-and-Be-Merry" ethos of ancient Egyptian New Year celebrations, centered on a gleaming mirror...
About the Artist
Norman de Garis Davies · 1865–1941
Norman de Garis Davies (1865–1941) was a British Egyptologist and archaeological artist whose meticulous copies of ancient Egyptian tomb paintings constitute one of the most important records of pharaonic art ever made. Born in Ashton-under-Lyne, Lancashire, he originally trained for the ministry before being drawn into Egyptology through his involvement with the Egypt Exploration Fund in the 1890...