Carpenter with Tools, Tomb of Rekhmire
ca. 1504–1425 B.C.
Medium
Paper, tempera paint, ink
Dimensions
facsimile: h. 26 cm (10 1/4 in); w. 41.5 cm (16 5/16 in), scale 1:1, framed: h. 29.2 cm (11 1/2 in); w. 44.5 cm (17 1/2 in)
Classification
Facsimile, Rekhmire (TT 100), carpenter
Period
New Kingdom
Department
Egyptian Art
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Rogers Fund, 1931
Accession Number
31.6.12
Rights
Public Domain
Art Historical Context
Step into the bustling workshops of ancient Egypt with *Carpenter with Tools* from the Tomb of Rekire, a vivid facsimile capturing a New Kingdom scene from around 1504–1425 B.C. This Dynasty 18 artwork, originally a wall painting in the Theban tomb of Rekhmire—a powerful vizier under pharaohs Thutmose III and Amenhotep II—depicts a skilled at work amid an array of chisels, adzes, and mallets. Such scenes were essential tomb decorations, illustrating the organized labor and craftsmanship that sustained Egypt's grandeur, ensuring the deceased's eternal prosperity through symbolic depictions of daily life. Rendered in meticulous 1:1 scale by early 20th-century artist Nina de Garis Davies using tempera paint, ink, and paper, this facsimile preserves the original's flat, profile figures and vibrant colors with remarkable fidelity. Davies, renowned for her archaeological copies, worked with her husband Norman de Garis Davies to document endangered tomb art before it faded. Housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Egyptian Art department (acquired via Rogers Fund, 1931), it offers a window into advanced woodworking techniques, like curved saws and precise joinery, highlighting Egypt's engineering prowess during its imperial peak. This piece not only showcases artistic conventions of the Amarna period's precursors—bold outlines and hierarchical scale—but also underscores cultural reverence for artisans, whose skills built temples, ships, and chariots that defined an empire. A true treasure for understanding ancient innovation!
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...