From antiquity, when the Great Pyramid was revered as a wonder of
the ancient world, to the Cleopatra of Shakespeare's stage, and
from the medieval Arab scholars who sought hieroglyphs' mystical
wisdom, to the biblical stories still told today, Visions of
Ancient Egypt explores how ongoing engagement with ancient Egypt
has shaped centuries of art and design. Accompanying a
ground-breaking exhibition, it unpicks the constructed fantasies of
this ancient civilisation and charts how ancient Egypt's iconic
motifs and visual style have been re-imagined over time - revealing
not just an enduring artistic fascination with Egypt, but a story
of how Egypt's own heritage has been reinvented and appropriated by
different cultures over time, and a history closely entwined with
imperial conquest and colonial politics. Beautifully illustrated
throughout and with contributions by leading scholars, this book
explores the imagined construction of ancient Egypt promoted
through painting, sculpture, photography, architecture and film, as
well as design, fashion and jewellery. It traces the journey across
time, beginning with the ancient Romans who looted Egyptian
monuments and adopted Egyptian gods into their Pantheon; to
Napoleon Bonaparte's invasion of Egypt, and the elite taste for all
things Egyptian it prompted; as well as the Victorian creation of
an Orientalist fantasy popularised at World Fairs. Presented in a
nuanced way, the story is not Eurocentric. For the first time, it
also places Egypt's own story firmly into the narrative, exploring
for example Egyptian artists' responses to nationalist calls for
independence spurred by the discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb in
1922, while also addressing the popular impact of the 'Tutmania'
craze in the West and its influence on Art Deco. The book also
examines the enduring appeal of ancient Egypt in global
contemporary art, across media from painting and sculpture, to film
and multimedia installations. Artists both within and beyond Egypt
continue to look to its ancient imagery to make statements about
heritage, identity and race. The book invites readers to debate and
to discuss this complex history of the construction of ancient
Egypt in art and design, and to ask who these visions serve - both
then and now.
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