Sifting Meal, Tomb of Rekhmire
ca. 1504–1425 B.C.
Medium
Paper, tempera paint, ink
Dimensions
facsimile: h. 20.5 cm (8 1/16 in); w. 44.5 cm (17 1/2 in), scale 1:1, framed: h. 24.1 cm (9 1/2 in); w. 47.6 cm (18 3/4 in)
Classification
Facsimile, Rekhmire (TT 100), cooking
Period
New Kingdom
Department
Egyptian Art
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Rogers Fund, 1931
Accession Number
31.6.24
Tags
Art Historical Context
Step into the bustling world of ancient Egypt with *Sifting Meal* from the Tomb of Rekhmire, a vivid facsimile capturing a slice of New Kingdom daily life around 1504–1425 B.C. This scene, from the elaborate tomb of Rekhmire—a powerful vizier under Pharaohs Thutmose III and Amenhotep II in Dynasty 18—depicts men at work sifting meal, likely grain or flour, using baskets. Such detailed vignettes adorned elite tombs to magically ensure the deceased's eternal sustenance, reflecting Egypt's agrarian economy and reverence for labor. Created as a precise 1:1 scale watercolor copy by Nina de Garis D...
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...