Egyptian Patterns Compact Mirror

Description

The Museum’s Egyptian Patterns Compact Mirror is based on textile-derived painted ceilings, copied from tombs from New Kingdom Egypt, ca. 1390–1349 B.C.

Iron with silver overlay. Lacquer coating with hand- applied decals. 2 1/4'' square.

Art History

From 1907 to 1937, the Graphic Section of the Egyptian Expedition of the Metropolitan Museum made precise colored copies (facsimiles) of decorations found in tombs in the cemeteries of western Thebes, across the Nile from modern Luxor. Among the nearly 300 facsimiles on display in the Egyptian galleries are some that reproduce painted ceiling decorations, originally created to suggest the tomb chambers were hung with colorfully decorated textiles.