Trimming Wood with an Adze, Tomb of Rekhmire
ca. 1504–1425 B.C.
Medium
Paper, tempera paint, ink
Dimensions
facsimile: h. 31 cm (12 3/16 in); w. 34 cm (13 3/8 in), scale 1:1, framed: h. 34.3 cm (13 1/2 in); w. 38.1 cm (15 in)
Classification
Facsimile, Rekhmire (TT 100), carpenter, adze
Period
New Kingdom
Department
Egyptian Art
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Rogers Fund, 1931
Accession Number
31.6.28
Tags
Art Historical Context
Step into the bustling workshops of ancient Egypt with *Trimming Wood with an Ad*, a meticulous facsimile from the Tomb of Rekhmire created by renowned Egyptologist and artist Nina de Garis. Dating to the New Kingdom's 18th Dynasty (ca. 1504–1425 B.C.), this scene captures workmen skillfully shaping wood using an adze—a curved-handled tool essential for carpentry in pharaonic times. Rendered at 1:1 scale on paper with tempera paint and ink, the 31 x 34 cm reproduction vividly preserves the original tomb painting's vibrant colors and precise details. Rekhmire, a powerful vizier under Thutmose ...
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...