Women at a Banquet
A.D. 1922; original ca. 1400–1390 B.C.
Medium
Tempera on paper
Dimensions
facsimile: h. 29.5 cm (11 5/8 in); w. 58 cm (22 13/16 in), scale 1:1; framed: h. 33 cm ( 13 in); w. 61 cm (24 in)
Classification
Facsimile, Nebseny (TT 108), banquet guests; Drink-and-be-Merry
Period
Twentieth Century; original New Kingdom
Department
Egyptian Art
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Rogers Fund, 1930
Accession Number
30.4.92
Tags
Art Historical Context
Behold *Women at a Banquet*, a vivid facsimile created in 1922 by Nina de Garis Davies, reproducing an ancient Egyptian tomb painting from around 1400–1390 B.C. during the New Kingdom's Dynasty 18. Thisa-on-paper copy, rendered at a precise 1:1 scale, captures a lively scene of elite women reveling at a feast—complete with music, dance, and merriment—evoking the "drink-and-be-merry" spirit central to Egyptian funerary art. Such depictions adorned tomb walls to ensure eternal joy in the afterlife, offering museum visitors a window into the opulent social life of ancient Egypt's nobility. Artis...
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...