Manipulating Image, Word and Reality
Brooklyn Museum’s collection: a lion’s head gargoyle from the Late or Ptolemaic Period and “The Goddess Isis as Magician,” a bronze statue from the Roman Period.
The museum even has its own dig site at the Temple Precinct of the Goddess Mut at South Karnak in Egypt. Though, in accordance with Egyptian law, no objects unearthed there can leave the country.
“Many people associate ancient Egypt with magic, and that’s a long-standing idea,” says Edward Bleiberg, the museum’s curator of Egyptian, Classical and Ancient Middle Eastern Art, citing the Book of Exodus as an example.
Continuing in their efforts to bring more Egyptian artifacts to the Brooklyn arts arena, the Museum will open another exhibit, “Pharaohs, Queens and Goddesses,” which will focus on work relating to the powerful female leaders of ancient Egypt. Presented in conjunction with the soon-to-be-opened Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art at the Museum, the show will feature art depicting Cleopatra, Nefertiti, and Hatshepsut, the legendary fifth pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty.
“Ancient Egyptian Magic” will run until August, although if you’re hoping to soak up some of your own magical protection, you might visit sooner rather than later — it could be bad luck not to.
Manipulating Image, Word and Reality will be on display until Aug. 12 at the Brooklyn Museum
Images: Relief of Ptah holding Ankh and Djed. Egypt, provenance not known. Late Period or Ptolemaic Period (fourth–third century b.c.). Stucco. Brooklyn Museum, Gift of the Ernest Erickson Foundation, 86.226.17
December 22, 2006–August 12, 2007Special Exhibitions Hall, Egyptian Galleries, 3rd Floor
How the Egyptians, known throughout the ancient world for their expertise in magic, addressed the unknown forces of the universe is explored in this exhibition of twenty objects from the Brooklyn Museum's world-famous collection. Ancient Egyptians did not distinguish between religion and magic. They believed that the manipulation of written words, images, and ritual could influence the world through a divinely created force known as Heqa, personified as the eldest son of the solar creator Atum. Heqa could be used by the gods to control and sustain the universe and by humans to deal with problems of ordinary life. The exhibition includes a relief of a son of Ramesses II, Prince Khaemwaset, who became legendary as a sage and magician; a bronze figure of the goddess Isis, known as "great of magic," holding a cobra that also had magical powers; a magical healing stela inspired by myths of Isis healing Horus of a scorpion bite; and a headrest with images of Bes and Taweret, deities who protected the dead and the living. The exhibition also examines connections between magic and medicine, including the consumption of liquids imbued with magical powers; and the use of magic after death through such objects as funerary figurines that were created to carry out any work in the afterlife the gods might require of the deceased.
December 22, 2006–August 12, 2007Special Exhibitions Hall, Egyptian Galleries, 3rd Floor
How the Egyptians, known throughout the ancient world for their expertise in magic, addressed the unknown forces of the universe is explored in this exhibition of twenty objects from the Brooklyn Museum's world-famous collection. Ancient Egyptians did not distinguish between religion and magic. They believed that the manipulation of written words, images, and ritual could influence the world through a divinely created force known as Heqa, personified as the eldest son of the solar creator Atum. Heqa could be used by the gods to control and sustain the universe and by humans to deal with problems of ordinary life. The exhibition includes a relief of a son of Ramesses II, Prince Khaemwaset, who became legendary as a sage and magician; a bronze figure of the goddess Isis, known as "great of magic," holding a cobra that also had magical powers; a magical healing stela inspired by myths of Isis healing Horus of a scorpion bite; and a headrest with images of Bes and Taweret, deities who protected the dead and the living. The exhibition also examines connections between magic and medicine, including the consumption of liquids imbued with magical powers; and the use of magic after death through such objects as funerary figurines that were created to carry out any work in the afterlife the gods might require of the deceased.
This exhibition is curated by Richard Fazzini, Director of the Brooklyn Museum's excavation at the Temple Precinct of the Goddess Mut in Egypt.
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