Capt. Mondo's World o' Mondo-ness

Went to the Egypt Exhibit at the ROM
Left work slightly early with Bill in order to get to the new Eternal Egypt exhibition at the ROM. Got a postcard invitation in the mail about a month before announcing a members-only exclusive chance to visit the exhibit the day before it officially opened to the public. This sort of exhibit is right up my alley, so I couldn’t pass this chance up.

I got there at 4:30pm, and wandered downstairs to the lecture hall. Turns out that there was already a line up for the next lecture, so I got in line and just managed to find a single seat for myself up by the front. Soon after the place was completely full, and there was still a lengthy line-up outside. The lecturer, Gayle Gibson, came on at the appointed time and gave a stirring and very personable lecture about the kings of Egypt, using the various pieces in the exhibit as a launching point into their religion, customs, political life and sometimes the personal foibles and the scandals that affected various kingships. She also did a great job of placing the objects within their original context, and explaining the beatific smile that appears on the faces of many a Pharoah.

Despite the fact that it was housed in what is becoming my least favourite gallery in the ROM (the Galen Weston gallery – sorry Galen), thanks to its cramped feeling and total reliance on artificial light, the exhibition is excellent. There were plenty of others members present, but not too many so that I couldn’t stay and linger over a given piece. I decided to go for the audio tour, and was bemused to find the narration provided by Gryff Rhys Davies, his Welsh accent providing sonorous and sometimes interesting interpretations of the names of various Egyptian pharaohs. ;-)

This exhibition is arranged chronologically, starting with pieces from the Old Kingdom and gradually working through the Middle and New Kingdoms, all the way up until the time of the Ptolemies and the Romans. While the Old Kingdom pieces are the fewest in number, the works are startling both in their sophistication and for their sheer age – looking at pieces of wood and ivory that were carved into human likenesses over 40 centuries ago, at once so old and yet familiar in form.

No mummies here (though at least one beautifully-decorated mummy case) but plenty of art and significant pieces. There’s the stone lion that flanked the entrance to the exhibit, which could easily have been a holdover from the previous Art Deco exhibition in this same gallery a few months ago, though it was older my a few millennia. It had apparently been re-inscribed by Tutankhamen, and then re-inscribed again by a later pharaoh. I couldn’t help but think of the Chinese prints I had seen from the Possessing the Past exhibition we saw in NYC several years ago where various emperors had put their seal on favourite pictures – a literal "seal of approval" and wonder whether something of the same process was happening here.

One of the nice things about this exhibition is the focus on art and when possible, on the artists. There were some revealing pieces, such as ostracons featuring draft studies of pieces about to be turned into formalized art, obiously exercises a master has given a pupil to work with. Then there's the scribe's case that was obviously well-used during his lifetime, and was considered prcious enough to join him in the afterlife, as it was found in his tomb.

Other interesting sections included an area dedicated to large statuary from the New Kingdom era, dominated by an oversized head on a podium a dozen or so feet above the floor. Against the wall were sections from the first tomb of Horemheb, former general under Tutankhamen who become Pharaoh after his death (enabling him to create a more grand, second tomb for himself). In the same area was one of the oddest statues I have ever seen, of an Egyptian god with a human body but the head (and body) of a turtle. Near the end of the exhibition were papyri containing scenes from the Book of the Dead, but it was a papyrus at the start of this section that most took my interest: it depicted a "cartoon" of a lion playing a game of senet (similar to chess) with a gazelle. It was a famous illustration, and I had seen copies of it in books before, but this was the first time I had seen all of it. To the right of the main scene you see the lion feasting on the gazelle, presumably after loosing the game.

Soon after I made my way out of the exhibition, and as I went down the final corridor I heard the strains of classical music getting loader and louder. Turns out the Toronto Symphony Orchestra was there to play a concert. The place was packed so I left, with a stirring rendition of The Ride of the Valkyries filling my ears as I walked out the doors.

(Another good review of the exhibit).