“Time-machine to Ancient Times”
The Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan is an impressive museum. It has an extensive number of exhibits beginning with the Ancient Egypt exhibit. I have chosen this exhibit as I have always been fascinated with Ancient Egypt from when I first began to study them in fifth grade. It was very hard to choose which part of the exhibit to focus on. There were many media to choose from: drawings, to pottery, jewelry, sculpture, and then the sarcophagi. But, there was one part of the exhibit that struck me.
In one of the side rooms, there was a sarcophagus that in its own way reminded me of Russian dolls. There was one that went inside another, that went inside another, that went inside another until the outer shell. The core was the mummy. The outer most shell was the least decorated, or painted to then the most inner shell which was covered with color.
This was the sarcophagus of Kharushre. He was apart of the second half of Dynasty 22, which in our terms was 825-715 B.C.E. He was excavated by Gastin Maspero in 1885. The four outer shells of this sarcophagus are fully intact. According to the description, Kharushre was the door keeper of the House of Amun. Frankly, I was surprised he deserved the honor of the sarcophagus.
The outer most shell is made out of Coniferas wood. It has no decoration, is in a dark color, and very little detail. The face on the head of the sarcophagus is barely detailed, but enough so to tell who the sarcophagus belongs to. The second outer shell is very similar. It is made of a lighter color and simple decoration. The third shell is extremely detailed decoration. According to the description, at the top, Kharushre is being presented by Throth to the Lord Eternity and Anubis weighs the heart. The middle depicts Iris and Nephthys. The bottom of the sarcophagus has Doker boat inside Shuer. The fourth shell, and final before the mummy, is called the Cortonnage. Every available space is covered with color. The colors seem to be shading in blues and reds. According to the description, as I could not get close enough to this one to see very clearly, it had a ram-headed winged falcon. There are shrines with Horus. Horus’s falcons perched atop a ‘djed’ totem. There were also goddesses and demons with outstretched wings. Inside the Cortonnage would lie the mummy. The mummy is made of linen wrappings which are kept together and in place with straps.
I find the sarcophagi of ancient Egypt quite fascinating. Not only the time it would have taken to make these for those people who deserved this honor, but the level of art these undertakings demanded. People have known that art has existed in our society for a long time, but there are many people who consider art a more modern indulgence. With paint and camera stores everywhere, I find the ancient aspect of art has been lost to people. This is only how they chose to send their chosen in the afterlife. This doesn’t even begin to touch on the paintings inside the palaces. It is very unfortunate many of these paintings, all along the walls have been at least partly destroyed due to time and the ways of people. The care people had to show to establish the detail they did, the depths of the images, of the ancient Egyptians, only begins to convey their talent. They had one of the first forms of poetry, describing their gods and stories. This isn’t even touching on the mummy itself. Mummification preserves the body for a long time. They takeout the organs and put them into different vessels. This is supposed to help you in your next life. I chose this specific group of sarcophagi because many of the other sarcophagi at the museum were at least partially destroyed. Others had the paintings chipped away, noses broken off, and more damage. This set of sarcophagi was fully preserved.
I find the medium a great task to achieve. The ancient Egyptians had to first create the sarcophagus in the image of the person they are trying to represent. Then the drawings had to depict certain scenes used to describe their rankings, who they worshipped, and about them in general, and then mummify the person to put into this. I am not sure on my feelings for how it was displayed. This is a persons grave, and we would not see fit to disturb anyone else’s grave and exhibit it the same way.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan is an impressive museum. It has an extensive number of exhibits beginning with the Ancient Egypt exhibit. I have chosen this exhibit as I have always been fascinated with Ancient Egypt from when I first began to study them in fifth grade. It was very hard to choose which part of the exhibit to focus on. There were many media to choose from: drawings, to pottery, jewelry, sculpture, and then the sarcophagi. But, there was one part of the exhibit that struck me.
In one of the side rooms, there was a sarcophagus that in its own way reminded me of Russian dolls. There was one that went inside another, that went inside another, that went inside another until the outer shell. The core was the mummy. The outer most shell was the least decorated, or painted to then the most inner shell which was covered with color.
This was the sarcophagus of Kharushre. He was apart of the second half of Dynasty 22, which in our terms was 825-715 B.C.E. He was excavated by Gastin Maspero in 1885. The four outer shells of this sarcophagus are fully intact. According to the description, Kharushre was the door keeper of the House of Amun. Frankly, I was surprised he deserved the honor of the sarcophagus.
The outer most shell is made out of Coniferas wood. It has no decoration, is in a dark color, and very little detail. The face on the head of the sarcophagus is barely detailed, but enough so to tell who the sarcophagus belongs to. The second outer shell is very similar. It is made of a lighter color and simple decoration. The third shell is extremely detailed decoration. According to the description, at the top, Kharushre is being presented by Throth to the Lord Eternity and Anubis weighs the heart. The middle depicts Iris and Nephthys. The bottom of the sarcophagus has Doker boat inside Shuer. The fourth shell, and final before the mummy, is called the Cortonnage. Every available space is covered with color. The colors seem to be shading in blues and reds. According to the description, as I could not get close enough to this one to see very clearly, it had a ram-headed winged falcon. There are shrines with Horus. Horus’s falcons perched atop a ‘djed’ totem. There were also goddesses and demons with outstretched wings. Inside the Cortonnage would lie the mummy. The mummy is made of linen wrappings which are kept together and in place with straps.
I find the sarcophagi of ancient Egypt quite fascinating. Not only the time it would have taken to make these for those people who deserved this honor, but the level of art these undertakings demanded. People have known that art has existed in our society for a long time, but there are many people who consider art a more modern indulgence. With paint and camera stores everywhere, I find the ancient aspect of art has been lost to people. This is only how they chose to send their chosen in the afterlife. This doesn’t even begin to touch on the paintings inside the palaces. It is very unfortunate many of these paintings, all along the walls have been at least partly destroyed due to time and the ways of people. The care people had to show to establish the detail they did, the depths of the images, of the ancient Egyptians, only begins to convey their talent. They had one of the first forms of poetry, describing their gods and stories. This isn’t even touching on the mummy itself. Mummification preserves the body for a long time. They takeout the organs and put them into different vessels. This is supposed to help you in your next life. I chose this specific group of sarcophagi because many of the other sarcophagi at the museum were at least partially destroyed. Others had the paintings chipped away, noses broken off, and more damage. This set of sarcophagi was fully preserved.
I find the medium a great task to achieve. The ancient Egyptians had to first create the sarcophagus in the image of the person they are trying to represent. Then the drawings had to depict certain scenes used to describe their rankings, who they worshipped, and about them in general, and then mummify the person to put into this. I am not sure on my feelings for how it was displayed. This is a persons grave, and we would not see fit to disturb anyone else’s grave and exhibit it the same way.
No comments:
Post a Comment