Sifting Meal, Tomb of Rekhmire

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 Davies in the early 20th century, this work on paper with tempera paint and ink preserves the original wall painting's flat, stylized figures and vibrant colors. Davies, a skilled archaeological artist, meticulously reproduced these scenes for study, bridging millennia. The composition highlights the rhythmic teamwork of workers, their dynamic poses conveying motion in a medium where profile views and symbolic hierarchies dominated. Housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Egyptian Art department (Rogers Fund, 1931), this facsimile offers modern visitors an intimate glimpse into pharaonic society—where food preparation symbolized prosperity and continuity. It's a testament to how tomb art immortalized the everyday, blending utility with spirituality.

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...