Egypt: Faith after the Pharaohs

Fascinating exhibition at the British Museum charting the transformation in Egypt after the last pharaoh from a religion of many gods to the monotheistic religions of Christianity, Judaism and Islam. Covering 12000 years from 30BC and the coming of the Roman Empire to 1171 AD when Saladin took power.

Despite the main focus of the exhibition being big theological ideas the show managed to have a very personal feel and to reflect how these changes affected people’s lives. I’m not sure what the link to religion was but who could resist the tiny child’s striped sock!

There was a lot about how the later religions reused Egyptian temples and how they adapted the imagery. I was fascinated by the section on the family unit of Serapis, Isis and Harpokrates which showed how some of their imagery was reused sometimes as a trilogy image but also as a strong mother and child image.

I loved all the documents which had been found in one city with boggy earth and in the synagogue in Cairo. In both cases there were all types of document from shopping lists to legal documents. I particularly liked a lease renting property between Christians and Jews with the line “and whenever it is wished I will give back the aforementioned rooms free from dirt as I received them”! How many leases today have a very similar clause!

There was an underlying theme to the show about religious coexisting together in an area and I loved the final display of three ancient children’s tops one from Christian, Jewish and Islamic areas and yet they were almost the same.

Closes 7 February 2015.

Reviews
Guardian
Telegraph
Evening Standard

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year Exhibition 2019

Image
Delightful exhibition at Clarendon Fine Art showing pictures from the Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year TV series. I had loved the series which had set nine artists, both professional and amateur, to paint one of three celebrities. It then had a semi-final and final with them all looking at one sitter and in the final they also took on a commission. I loved the way you watched a picture build and how some were then made or spoiled by one stroke of paint.   Finding these pictures I knew so well in the flesh was therefore fascinating. None of them disappointed. My favourite artist from the final, Tom Mead, works looked just as good in real life if not better as you could see the detail. The show included his impressive self-portrait which he submitted to enter the competition, a wonderful fragmented picture of his reflection in a mirror giving a sense of movement. I loved that it included a large version of him and a miniature. His commission for the final of Jazzie B was
Read more

Thomas Becket: Murder and Making of a Saint

Image
Stunning exhibition at the British Museum on the life and afterlife of Thomas Becket. I studied Becket both at A Level and at university so I was really looking forward to this show and it did not disappoint. From walking in to see an old friend, the early Limoges casket showing the murder from the Victoria and Albert Museum, I was gripped. The show told the story well using fantastic objects and led you through his life, the murder, the political aftermath, his sainthood and miracles, and how Canterbury became a major pilgrimage site. It is hard to pick out the best objects as so many were wonderful. I loved that they had early copies of some of the five eyewitness accounts of the murder which made you fell you were almost touching the event. I liked the manuscript on his time in exile which was almost like a comic strip. How wonderful to get a 13th century font from Sweden which shows how far and how quickly the news that Henry II had integrated the murder spread. I think my
Read more

Courtauld summer school day 1

Image
Today has been my first day of this year’s week at the Courtauld Institute’s summer schools. This year I am doing “Painting in Renaissance Venice” which is being led by Michael Douglas-Scott. It was nice to see some familiar faces and there are at least five of us who did Michael’s course last year. Today has been two lectures. Firstly setting out the background of Venice in this period looking at how the city had set up a myth of itself, the role of the Doge. the nature of the Republic and the role of citizens. The second lecture looked at why the nature of Renaissance was different in Venice. There was still a sense of the coming of antiquity and humanism but in Venice it fused with the Gothic and Byzantine rather than replacing it. The day ended with a choice of gallery talks. I went to one on the second floor of the Courtauld on the coming of Modernism. In essence it looked at the Impressionists and discussed what they were reacting against and what themes they portrayed. All in a
Read more