Exhibition: Unearthing the Truth

Unearthing the Truth opens on Friday, February 13th. Now that this rather unusual exhibition is ready to go, I am glad to have this opportunity to talk about it a little. Most of the Late Antique Egyptian stone sculptures in the Brooklyn Museum were acquired between the late 1950’s and the early 1970’s. We now know that, along with the genuinely ancient pieces that came on the art market and were acquired by the Museum during these years, there were also several forgeries. A few of these are ancient carvings that were apparently badly damaged when they were discovered in modern times, and were recarved to make them more salable. On about eight other examples in the Museum’s collection, however, the carving appears to be entirely modern.

The ancient examples in this group of sculptures were made during the Late Antique Period in Egypt. I use the term “Late Antique” to describe the centuries that came between the gradual end of the ancient culture of Pharaonic Egypt and the Arab conquest of Egypt, because so many artistic remains of that time include pagan motifs, which were clearly intended for believers in the religions of the Greeks and Romans. These people had come to Egypt as officials and soldiers under the Greek-speaking dynasty of the Ptolemies and the Roman emperors who succeeded them. The Late Antique Period is often called the Coptic Period, after the prevalent form of Christianity in Egypt in ancient times, as it still is today. This religion did come very early to Egypt; for several centuries, however, it was limited primarily to Alexandria on the Mediterranean coast, and to monasteries located in the desert or the countryside, together with the nearby villages from which the monks drew supplies and new recruits. Only gradually did Coptic Christianity become established in the cities, for whose wealthy citizens the Christian funerary carvings were made.