Ancient Egyptian Portraitures

The popularity of and the fascination with Egyptian Art come from the pyramids, mummies, and hieroglyphs. The theme of the exhibition is about racial types in Ancient Egyptian Art it will survey the various naturalistic facial features found in the non-royal sculptures. In contrast, the Royal portraits are extremely symbolic in representing human figures with the combination of human gods and animal forms that tend to portray idealized, conventional faces of Egypt. Utilizing objects from the permanent collection at the Brooklyn Museum of Art, this exhibit will display 25 portraits of nobleman, officials, and local individuals in order to hint at a variety of racial subdivision such as the Hykos, Nubian, Persian and Roman influence in the artistic representations of the Ancient Egyptian portraitures.

Politically and geographically, Ancient Egypt was divided into two zones, Delta and the Nile Valley also known as the upper and lower Egypt. The name of the country can be derived from the ancient Greek word for the Nile Valley in Arabic which is called al-Misr, meaning the “two regions.” The title of my exhibit is Al-Misr: The Identity Within. This exhibit is a play on the dual meaning of the country's name and the exotic language that exposes the nature of civilization over time. The opening night for the exhibit will be in the beginning of the year/month, in consideration with the time of festivities and celebration for the ancient Egyptians (January 1st -May 20th, 2012). The special gallery on the third floor (Morris and Mayer Schapiro Wing), will showcase a diversity of ethnicities that have shaped the civilization over thousands of years and it will set out to shatter a conventional belief of a commonly recognized features o...

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...ter a conventional belief of the contemporary interpretation of the Egyptian facial representation. The goal is to incorporate realistic portraits of non-royal Ancient Egyptian members, in hopes to stir a dialogue among both scholar, and non-scholarly crowds. The main issue with this exhibit was that some of the pieces were spread out which did not allow comparative advantages however I would argue that from a distance one may catch a keen difference from the corner of one's eye easier than if you were to blatantly examine two very similar pieces. The interpretation of Ancient Egyptian facial features has been spurred and morphed by Hollywood for too many years and it is time for us to explore the origins of such depictions. This exhibit clearly challenges our interpretations of a people we did not know and may prove us contradictory students of history with time.