Painted Restoration of the Hathor-Head Frieze in the Tomb of Senenmut
ca. 1479–1458 B.C.
Medium
Tempera on paper
Dimensions
Facsimile: H. 50 × W. 58.7 cm (19 11/16 × 23 1/8 in.); Scale: 1:1; Frame: H. 51.6 × W. 60.4 cm (20 5/16 × 23 3/4 in.)
Classification
Facsimile, restoration, Hathor frieze, Senenmut (TT 71)
Period
New Kingdom
Department
Egyptian Art
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Rogers Fund, 1937
Accession Number
37.4.1
Tags
Art Historical Context
Step into the vibrant world of ancient Egypt with this exquisite *Painted Restoration of the Hath-Head Frieze* from the Tomb of Senenmut, a masterful 20th-century facsimile by Nina de Garis Davies. Dating to the New Kingdom's 18th Dynasty (. 1479–1458 B.C.), the frieze adorned the tomb of Senenmut, a powerful architect and steward to Queen Hatshepsut one of Egypt's first female pharaohs. Rendered in tempera on paper at a precise 1:1 scale, Davies's work captures the rhythmic procession of Hathor-headed figures—embodying the goddess of love, music, and fertility—linked to themes of love poetry ...
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...