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Ancient Wonder

BY SCOTT MACLEOD

A new show reveals artistic splendors, even abstract imagery,

from the tombs of Egypt's pharaohs.

Since they were erected some 4,500 years ago, few monuments have inspired mankind as much as the pyramids of Egypt. As long ago as the 12th century B.C. the Romans constructed an imitation—still standing amid Rome's traffic snarls—for the entombment of the tribune Gaius Cestius. France has recently celebrated the 10th anniversary of I.M. Pei's elegant pyramidic glass entrance to the Louvre in Paris. In Galveston, Texas, another glass pyramid houses the world's largest indoor rain forest. And let's not forget the pyramid-shaped Luxor Hotel/Casino in Las Vegas.

The greatest of the ancient and original pyramids, in Giza, 7 km southwest of modern Cairo, were constructed by the legendary pharaohs of the Old Kingdom, which spanned the five centuries between 2700 and 2200 B.C. But in part because the spectacular architecture of this golden age was so overwhelming, even Egyptologists tended to neglect other aspects of life during the period such as the remarkable reliefs, sculptures and jewelry. Scholars were so in awe of the great pharaohs that they had a difficult time accepting that art of the period could involve ordinary people as well.

Now, after a decade of intensive research, a team of scholars led by Christiane Ziegler, curator of Egyptian antiquities at the Louvre, is providing fresh insight into the Old Kingdom's art treasures. Their new perspective is on show for the first time in "Egyptian Art in the Age of the Pyramids," an exhibition of 250 objects lent by 34 international museums and collections. It is on view until July 12 at the Grand Palais in Paris, and moves to New York in September and then Toronto in February next year. Including turn-of-the-century discoveries made by the renowned American archaeologist George A. Reisner, as well as very recent finds by Egyptian experts continuing to dig away in Giza, the exhibition provides the clearest understanding to date of how Old Kingdom art evolved in an impressive variety of styles, materials and skills. The artisans, it is now clear, were capable of creating not only the familiar formalized depictions of the pharaohs, but realistic and even abstract imagery as well.

What the show of this formative time tells us most of all is that Egyptian art was not only for the pharaohs, but the masses, too. "It is almost as if you see a new ancient Egypt, a culture at its roots, just coming forward into historical time," says Dorothea Arnold, curator of Egyptian art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

The snow opens with the time of Djoser, the great pharaoh of the Third Dynasty, who constructed the first known Egyptian pyramid, the so-called Step Pyramid in Saqqara near Giza. Here are painted limestone statues of the god Sepa, a priest and Nesa, a woman friend of the pharaoh. They are among the earliest full-length works created by man, and their bulkiness reflects the relatively undeveloped skills of the sculptor. But leap forward four centuries to the Sixth Dynasty objects at the end of the exhibition and view cedar sculptures of nude men whose expressive eyes, thin waists and muscular legs demonstrate a sophisticated rendering of the human form.

The display from the Fourth and Fifth Dynasties provides the most meaningful glimpse into the richness of the Old Kingdom, shattering the notion that pharaonic art was all coldly monumental. True, among the stunning objects are some familiar faces, such as the representations of the pyramid-building pharaohs. But even some of these objects are hardly colossal. One exquisite item is a miniature rose-colored limestone bust of Khafre, who erected Giza's second largest pyramid for his tomb.

Perhaps the show's most beautiful individual pieces are two schist statues of Menkaure, who ruled from 2490 to 2472 B.C., on loan from the Egyptian Museum in Cairo and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and reunited for the first time since Reisner discovered them in 1908 and 1910, respectively. Yet these have the pharaoh in touching rather than powerful depictions, one with the arm of his queen affectionately around his waist, and the other with the hand of a goddess clutching his palm.

An evocative look into how Old Kingdom art strayed, with delightful results, from the notion of conventional paranoiac works into the realm of the common man is seen in four ochre figures of Inty-shedu, a chief carpenter employed by a ruler at the end of the Fourth Dynasty. Discovered in 1992 by Egyptian archaeologist Zahi Hawass, director general for the Giza monuments, the statues show Inty-shedu at four different stages of his life. But while the sculptor portrayed this workman in pharaonic poses, the naïve face with its mustache and humble grin, as will as the thick, asymmetrical body, reveal the artist's delight in executing a work that was realistic rather than idealized. Indeed, Hawass regards his discovery as further proof that the pyramids were built with conscripted Egyptian laborers, not slaves as is popularly believed.

Another splendid demonstration of the range of Old Kingdom art is the show's collection of small figures of servants rolling dough, sitting at a pottery wheel, cutting meat and kneeling at a harp. Like almost all Egyptian art, and most famously the pyramids themselves, the pieces formed part of elaborate preparation for the afterlife. But unlike the immobile imagery associated with ancient religious art, the servants are depicted in a state of motion as they go about their daily chores.

Experts agree that the genius of the Old Kingdom was due to a fortunate mixture of fertile lands and social cohesion, guided by wise if autocratic sovereigns who derived immense authority as the worldly embodiments of the gods. "Egyptian Art" is a valiant effort toward unlocking the mysteries of one if human civilization's most impressive achievements. "Egyptian art is not static, but there is development, just as in European art," says the Louvre's Ziegler, the show's chief organizer. "I hope people can now see the different styles of Old Kingdom art." Yet Ziegler, for one, doesn't want the exhibition to be the last word. To underscore that "there is much to learn," she placed as the show's final object The Scribe, an apparently Fourth Dynasty sculpture that has been a favorite in the Louvre's Egyptian collection for years, but whose origin remains a puzzle to scholars.

The spiritually minded may find it appropriate that a major show celebrating an ancient people obsessed with eternal life is on view as 1999 turns into the year 2000. On New Year's Eve, in fact, the pyramids in Giza will be among the most popular sites on the planet for welcoming the Third Millennium, complete with a funky sound-and-laser show by the French techno-synthesizer Jean-Michel Jarree. Whether it is an art exhibition or a party, the pyramids are sure to continue their hold on our imaginations for millennia to come.

(From Time, May 24, 1999)

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