Tutankhamen

[poliphilo]

I hate gold.

No, that's too extreme. It has its uses- as adornment, detail, garnish, highlight. I don't grudge medieval angels and saints their haloes of gold leaf.

But it's so wrong as a material for sculpture. The way it throws light around, the way it shouts its colour. Texture, modelling and contour are obscured by all that surface noise. 

The Greeks got it right- the metal you use for sculpture is bronze. 

The Egyptian ruling classes had no taste. No spirituality, no inner life. Their art is about power and ownership- nothing else. 

They thought they could take it with them.

Look at me in the Field of Reeds- throwing my weight around, flashing my gold.

Comments

[pondhopper.livejournal.com]

Yes. They were terribly ostentatious. Funny thing. They're using the mask to advertise the Tut exhibit but it is not present in this edition. I'm presuming this is the same Tut exhibit we saw last year in Chicago at the Field Museum. It's a totally different focus from the one that made the rounds 30 years ago and was full of gold trappings and treasure.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Yes, this is the exhibition that visited Chicago. It's being housed in the Millennium Dome in London and they're charging £20 admittance- which is outrageous.

I saw the Tutankhamen stuff in Cairo 20 years ago. I can't say it left much of an impression.