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

[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.