The Gold of the Pharaohs, 2500 years of goldsmithing in ancient Egypt.
| N° d'inventaire | 21403 |
| Format | 24.5 x 28.5 |
| Détails | 240 p., 165 color illustrations, publisher's hardcover. |
| Publication | Paris, 2018 |
| Etat | Nine |
| ISBN | |
The Gold of the Pharaohs exhibition brings together more than 150 masterpieces from the Cairo Museum, some of which are leaving Egypt for the first time, and presents a series of prestigious ensembles discovered in the royal and princely tombs of Pharaonic Egypt. "In Egypt, pure gold is like the dust of the roads... You must send me the same quantity of gold as your father!" Thus expressed an oriental prince writing to the pharaoh around 1350 BC. The myth of an Egyptian El Dorado dates back to ancient times. The deserts surrounding the Nile Valley contained abundant mineral wealth, others arrived via trade routes; with the establishment of an Egyptian empire, the pharaoh levied heavy tributes on his vassals, which flowed into the royal treasury and that of the great temples, in particular that of Amun at Karnak. Lower Nubia annually delivered 250 kilos of gold to the temple of Karnak during the reign of Thutmose III. Discoveries as fabulous as those in the tomb of Tutankhamun or the treasures of Tanis have not failed to reinforce this myth. Just as the treasures buried in the tombs of the pharaohs belong to our collective imagination, these gold jewels, often enhanced with intensely colored stones: dark blue lapis lazuli, green feldspar, red carnelian, and vases fashioned from gold, bear witness to the splendor of the lives of kings and their courtiers. The oldest date from the First Dynasty, with the bracelets of King Djer discovered in his tomb at Abydos. Goldsmithing from the time of the pyramids is illustrated by the gold jewels of King Sekhemket from his pyramid at Saqqara and a set that belonged to Queen Hetepheres, mother of Khufu, buried at the foot of the Great Pyramid of Giza; her silver bracelets, the most prized metal, encrusted with butterflies are particularly noteworthy. At Dashur and Illahoun, the pyramids of the sovereigns of the 12th dynasty have yielded ornaments belonging to princesses of the royal family: openwork "pectoral" pendants, goldsmith belts and delicate bracelets testifying to the refinement of this period which is considered the apogee of Egyptian jewelry. With the ensemble of Queen Iah-hotep, mother of Pharaoh Amosis, discovered in the necropolis of Dra Abou'l Naga, on the West Bank of Thebes, the New Kingdom begins: a mirror with a gold disc, heavy bracelets, and a "wide" necklace illustrate the magnificence of the period. Unfortunately, the tombs of these great sovereigns dug into the cliffs of the Valley of the Kings have been plundered without scruple since Antiquity. It is hard to imagine the vanished treasures that the tombs of great monarchs such as Cheops, Thutmose III, or Ramses II contained... An elaborate set of jewelry, a diadem and earrings, belonging to a royal child of the 20th Dynasty comes from a hiding place in the same place. And while it does not contain any remarkable jewelry, the funerary furniture of Youya and Touyou, Amenhetep III's parents-in-law, who had the privilege of being buried in the Valley of the Kings, is truly royal: sarcophagus, funerary masks, and gold-plated furniture. The royal tombs discovered in 1939 at Tanis in the delta provided a mass of jewelry and goldwork dating from around 1000 BC. Little-known pharaohs, Psusennes I and Sheshank III, had taken treasures to their tombs that rivaled that of Tutankhamun: silver sarcophagus, gold masks, jewelry, precious vases, etc. Thus ends our journey chronologically, the tombs of later sovereigns not having been identified except for those of the pharaohs of Sudanese origin who were buried in their country. Beyond a presentation of sumptuous illustrated sets of documents retracing their discovery, this work also questions the status of these works which are one of the oldest and most universal forms of artistic expression; what they reveal to us about identity, value, ritual, the body, about their social and economic importance.
The Gold of the Pharaohs exhibition brings together more than 150 masterpieces from the Cairo Museum, some of which are leaving Egypt for the first time, and presents a series of prestigious ensembles discovered in the royal and princely tombs of Pharaonic Egypt. "In Egypt, pure gold is like the dust of the roads... You must send me the same quantity of gold as your father!" Thus expressed an oriental prince writing to the pharaoh around 1350 BC. The myth of an Egyptian El Dorado dates back to ancient times. The deserts surrounding the Nile Valley contained abundant mineral wealth, others arrived via trade routes; with the establishment of an Egyptian empire, the pharaoh levied heavy tributes on his vassals, which flowed into the royal treasury and that of the great temples, in particular that of Amun at Karnak. Lower Nubia annually delivered 250 kilos of gold to the temple of Karnak during the reign of Thutmose III. Discoveries as fabulous as those in the tomb of Tutankhamun or the treasures of Tanis have not failed to reinforce this myth. Just as the treasures buried in the tombs of the pharaohs belong to our collective imagination, these gold jewels, often enhanced with intensely colored stones: dark blue lapis lazuli, green feldspar, red carnelian, and vases fashioned from gold, bear witness to the splendor of the lives of kings and their courtiers. The oldest date from the First Dynasty, with the bracelets of King Djer discovered in his tomb at Abydos. Goldsmithing from the time of the pyramids is illustrated by the gold jewels of King Sekhemket from his pyramid at Saqqara and a set that belonged to Queen Hetepheres, mother of Khufu, buried at the foot of the Great Pyramid of Giza; her silver bracelets, the most prized metal, encrusted with butterflies are particularly noteworthy. At Dashur and Illahoun, the pyramids of the sovereigns of the 12th dynasty have yielded ornaments belonging to princesses of the royal family: openwork "pectoral" pendants, goldsmith belts and delicate bracelets testifying to the refinement of this period which is considered the apogee of Egyptian jewelry. With the ensemble of Queen Iah-hotep, mother of Pharaoh Amosis, discovered in the necropolis of Dra Abou'l Naga, on the West Bank of Thebes, the New Kingdom begins: a mirror with a gold disc, heavy bracelets, and a "wide" necklace illustrate the magnificence of the period. Unfortunately, the tombs of these great sovereigns dug into the cliffs of the Valley of the Kings have been plundered without scruple since Antiquity. It is hard to imagine the vanished treasures that the tombs of great monarchs such as Cheops, Thutmose III, or Ramses II contained... An elaborate set of jewelry, a diadem and earrings, belonging to a royal child of the 20th Dynasty comes from a hiding place in the same place. And while it does not contain any remarkable jewelry, the funerary furniture of Youya and Touyou, Amenhetep III's parents-in-law, who had the privilege of being buried in the Valley of the Kings, is truly royal: sarcophagus, funerary masks, and gold-plated furniture. The royal tombs discovered in 1939 at Tanis in the delta provided a mass of jewelry and goldwork dating from around 1000 BC. Little-known pharaohs, Psusennes I and Sheshank III, had taken treasures to their tombs that rivaled that of Tutankhamun: silver sarcophagus, gold masks, jewelry, precious vases, etc. Thus ends our journey chronologically, the tombs of later sovereigns not having been identified except for those of the pharaohs of Sudanese origin who were buried in their country. Beyond a presentation of sumptuous illustrated sets of documents retracing their discovery, this work also questions the status of these works which are one of the oldest and most universal forms of artistic expression; what they reveal to us about identity, value, ritual, the body, about their social and economic importance.