Coming to the Brooklyn Museum in November and sticking around for two years:
Body Parts: Ancient Egyptian Fragments and
Amulets features thirty-five
representations of individual body parts from
the Brooklyn Museum's ancient Egyptian
collection, many of which will be displayed
for the first time. This special exhibition
will be on view at the Brooklyn Museum from
November 19, 2009, through October 2, 2011.
Amulets features thirty-five
representations of individual body parts from
the Brooklyn Museum's ancient Egyptian
collection, many of which will be displayed
for the first time. This special exhibition
will be on view at the Brooklyn Museum from
November 19, 2009, through October 2, 2011.
This exhibition uses objects created as
distinct body parts, as well as fragments of
sculpture, to highlight the realistic
portrayal of individual body parts in
canonical Egyptian sculpture. The ancient
Egyptians carefully depicted each part of the
human body, respecting the significance of
every element. When viewed individually these
sculptures and fragments reveal the ancient
notions of body and pose, as well as details
of workmanship frequently unnoticed in more
complete sculptures. To better explain each
of these elements, the exhibition will make
connections to specific objects in the
Museum's Egyptian collection and to Egyptian
hieroglyphs.
A major highlight of the exhibition is an eye
cut from crystalline limestone, obsidian, and
blue glass that was once part of an
anthropoid (human-shaped) coffin similar to
the Museum's famous Cartonnage of
Nespanetjerenpere, currently on view in
the permanent installation. Body Parts
also features a headless kneeling statue of
Khaemwaset, a son of Ramses II, whose pose
reflects a new development in religious
sculpture, and a colossal left foot that was
created as a votive offering for the god Serapis.
cut from crystalline limestone, obsidian, and
blue glass that was once part of an
anthropoid (human-shaped) coffin similar to
the Museum's famous Cartonnage of
Nespanetjerenpere, currently on view in
the permanent installation. Body Parts
also features a headless kneeling statue of
Khaemwaset, a son of Ramses II, whose pose
reflects a new development in religious
sculpture, and a colossal left foot that was
created as a votive offering for the god Serapis.