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An Egyptian experiance
Jun. 24th, 2007 04:27 pmThat was fun and worth it.
Finally made it to the Traveling exhibit of Egyptian artifacts from the Louvre. Had wondered if I would see much that I had seen before, but given the size of the Louvre collection and the amount that just never emerges from storage I needn't have worried.
Some very cool stuff there. Was initially a little annoyed over the art history as opposed to archaeological emphasis of the labels and lack of translation of some of the heiroglyphs, but they had a couple translated later and we were soon too engrossed in the stuff to care.
Warning, touring with a geologist partner can be fun, especially when he disagrees with their stone classification (which happened scarily frequently) - granite/granodiorite/diorite or alabaster/calcite confusion issues. Mind you, the average art historian doesn't have a degree in geology so...
Cool things:
The faiance bead net.
The linen shroud cover with the painted on budget sarcophagus inscriptions. Cause it was couple thousand year old linen and you got a chance to eye up the weave and weight. Warp threads were fringed at the ends, but no salvage and the sort of fraying along the sides as though it had been ripped into pieces, so probably a wider loom (it was fairly narrow). Unfortunately no photography allowed and no picture of it in the catalogue (mutter mutter, concentrating on the shiny stuff).
The complete scroll of a Book of the Dead. Gorgeous pictures from someone who could definitely handle a pen. Z said great ductis (flow/penmanship rhythm etc). The ibis was particularly cool in the way it just flowed - should have looked for a postcard of that, but again mutter mutter shiny stuff. Your could see how it was carefully ruled out with boxes for the illustrations as not all of the boxes had been filled in.
Stone sarcophagus with the goddess inside carved above and below - naked ladiesaccompanying guarding you for eternity. Amazing carving though.
Wooden sarcophagus where you could see bits of the pegging for fixing the wood together - getting to see several thousand year old wood working techniques.
The glass cases and setting things enough away from the walls that often you could get a good look at the backs of things and definitely the sides.
Not so good:
Enough people so you were often doing a slow shuffle around.
Captions in odd locations and occasionally low enough that people nearby easily obscured them.
As stated, often a lack of archaeological detail, but given often the objects were looted in the 19th century, not suprising.
Difficult to get an idea of how Egyptian society art style changed over the ~3000 years covered and while you got the numbers, you didn't really get a feel for just how long that was. Mind you, it was focusing tightly on death and the afterlife.
So, make it if you can. More expensive than the Da Vinci machine exhibit, but far far better. Unfortunately this was the second to last weekend before it disappears, with next weekend being the last before it moves to Perth(?).
And the Art Gallery bookshop is dangerous - I nearly ruptured myself laughing at the John Peacock Fashion through the Ages book (forget the exact title), drooled at the Taschen Kyoto Institute of Fashion 2 volume set (but 18-20th century and don't think about the price) and did get the SA Gallery Durer printmaking book ($17 and while only having 22 images, did have Melancholia I, St Jerome at his study and other favourites). Does anyone know if any of the Durer prints are on permanent display there - they appear from the catalogue comments to have quite a collection. Drooooool.....
Finally made it to the Traveling exhibit of Egyptian artifacts from the Louvre. Had wondered if I would see much that I had seen before, but given the size of the Louvre collection and the amount that just never emerges from storage I needn't have worried.
Some very cool stuff there. Was initially a little annoyed over the art history as opposed to archaeological emphasis of the labels and lack of translation of some of the heiroglyphs, but they had a couple translated later and we were soon too engrossed in the stuff to care.
Warning, touring with a geologist partner can be fun, especially when he disagrees with their stone classification (which happened scarily frequently) - granite/granodiorite/diorite or alabaster/calcite confusion issues. Mind you, the average art historian doesn't have a degree in geology so...
Cool things:
The faiance bead net.
The linen shroud cover with the painted on budget sarcophagus inscriptions. Cause it was couple thousand year old linen and you got a chance to eye up the weave and weight. Warp threads were fringed at the ends, but no salvage and the sort of fraying along the sides as though it had been ripped into pieces, so probably a wider loom (it was fairly narrow). Unfortunately no photography allowed and no picture of it in the catalogue (mutter mutter, concentrating on the shiny stuff).
The complete scroll of a Book of the Dead. Gorgeous pictures from someone who could definitely handle a pen. Z said great ductis (flow/penmanship rhythm etc). The ibis was particularly cool in the way it just flowed - should have looked for a postcard of that, but again mutter mutter shiny stuff. Your could see how it was carefully ruled out with boxes for the illustrations as not all of the boxes had been filled in.
Stone sarcophagus with the goddess inside carved above and below - naked ladies
Wooden sarcophagus where you could see bits of the pegging for fixing the wood together - getting to see several thousand year old wood working techniques.
The glass cases and setting things enough away from the walls that often you could get a good look at the backs of things and definitely the sides.
Not so good:
Enough people so you were often doing a slow shuffle around.
Captions in odd locations and occasionally low enough that people nearby easily obscured them.
As stated, often a lack of archaeological detail, but given often the objects were looted in the 19th century, not suprising.
Difficult to get an idea of how Egyptian society art style changed over the ~3000 years covered and while you got the numbers, you didn't really get a feel for just how long that was. Mind you, it was focusing tightly on death and the afterlife.
So, make it if you can. More expensive than the Da Vinci machine exhibit, but far far better. Unfortunately this was the second to last weekend before it disappears, with next weekend being the last before it moves to Perth(?).
And the Art Gallery bookshop is dangerous - I nearly ruptured myself laughing at the John Peacock Fashion through the Ages book (forget the exact title), drooled at the Taschen Kyoto Institute of Fashion 2 volume set (but 18-20th century and don't think about the price) and did get the SA Gallery Durer printmaking book ($17 and while only having 22 images, did have Melancholia I, St Jerome at his study and other favourites). Does anyone know if any of the Durer prints are on permanent display there - they appear from the catalogue comments to have quite a collection. Drooooool.....
