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

[msjann65.livejournal.com]

Twenty pounds???? Outrageous! Especially when you consider that it's for the fruits of a tomb robbing expedition!
As for King Tutankhamen's posthumous belongings: I could care less, believe me. There were many more pharaohs than this one boy-king, and many of them had a definite impact upon the history of the world. Not so young Tut.
Kind of reminds me of the Boston ballet's Xmas spectacular "Nutcracker" ballet. It's the only ballet that most people have ever heard of - and they love to flaunt their cultural "awareness" by talking of how much they paid for great seats to the "Nutcracker", and to talk about how many child-extras they have this year as opposed to last year. If you ask these people if they have seen "Giselle", you're likely to be answered, "Who's she?"
Likewise with Tut. Most people have no idea of the other kings of Egypt. A lot of them think that HE built the Pyramids. And what is really unpalatable is the fact that people are willing to pay a fortune to see these stolen artifacts when they should probably be made available at no cost. After all, one still must pay a museum entrance fee in order to get in the door. Why should it cost yet another twenty pounds (how much is that in American dollars, anyway?) to view something that is INSIDE the museum?
Sad...

[solar-diablo.livejournal.com]

I was curious, so I used a currency converter online. It's about $41USD, plus change.

Yikes!

[msjann65.livejournal.com]

It's robbery! (How appropriate, since a tomb was robbed in order for there to be a show at all!)

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I love the Egyptian galleries in our little museum here in Manchester. Manchester University has been a major centre for Egyptological studies since the 19th century and that feeds into a display which- while it lacks spectacular artefacts- is very well curated and highly informative. It has taught me far more about life in ancient Egypt than the national collections in London and Cairo.

[msjann65.livejournal.com]

In the Boston Museum of Fine Arts we have some fine statuary of the kings who built the pyramids, including a colossal statue in alabaster of Mycerinus (Merenptah) who built the third pyramid at Giza, and a small alabaster head of Chepren, as well as much other stuff from the Old Kingdom. This has always been my favorite section of the Museum, ever since I was a small girl visiting the Museum with my father on a Sunday afternoon.