365 Days at the Met

January 31, 2018 Gallery 114 contains several large painted coffins and many small objects of alabaster, stone, metal, and other materials from the museum's excavations of Late Middle Kingdom (1800-1650 B.C. or so) sites near Thebes.  One mummy-shaped coffin is decorated with the painted image of a dog (I think it's a dog rather than a jackal) lying on a little house. right up under the decedent's breastplate. Was this a favorite pet of the deceased man, I wonder, or did it have another kind of symbolic significance?  Today's object is a little round container, maybe four inches in diameter - a cosmetics jar, I suspect, made of what I think is ivory but might be alabaster.  Its lid swivels around to expose the contents.  But what strikes me is the decoration on the lid. Around the circumference is a narrow zigzag band. In the circular interior of the space is a flower with 12 petals drawn with a fine pen. But what really strikes me is that the petals ar...

January 29, 2018 This room (113) makes me wonder why these objects are exhibited in an art museum rather than a museum of archaeology (although of course there is no such museum in New York City), since many of them have a homely, almost crude quality. They include: rough clay models of ancient houses, both one- and two-story (both with staircases leading to the roof, where people could sleep on hot nights); a wooden model of a man driving a team of oxen pulling a plow; many small figures of hippos amd monkeys; and musical instruments that appear to be carved of ivory or bone and that are shaped like lower arms. (I cannot fathom how these last are played, unless they are possibly plectra for stringed instruments.) There are also, to be sure, a couple of elaborate and lovely gold, turquoise, and carnelian necklaces. But much of what is here seems less ornate, and an explanatory sign discusses ancient Egypt's three-tiered class structure. I suppose the easy answer to my ini...

January 26, 2018 This gallery (112) contains relics excavated from the Middle Kingdom cemetery of Meir, south of Cairo. One of these is a large outer coffin, rather similar in size and general decoration to the one I wrote about earlier, except that one end depicts a goddess. She is dressed in a slinky white jumpsuit that leaves one breast, shown in profile, exposed; she also has wide bracelets and ankle bracelets resembling those I've seen in some display cases. On her head she balances a tray holding two cosmetic jars; the caption says that the rejuvenating properties of the unguents they contained were important for the idea of preserving the corpse for the afterlife. Makers and users of Olay (like me): take note! There's also a model boat bearing a mummy under a canopy.  Long-haired female mourners dressed in white appear on either end of the mummy, along with two priests. What's particularly interesting is that a leopard skin, complete with the animal's ...

January 24, 2018 Among the wonderful objects in this Middle Kingdom room (111) are an alabaster cosmetics jar in the form  of a cat sitting on its haunches, its musculature well-modeled from the stone; a seal topped by a tiny (maybe 2" high) statuette of  a small boy, his head huge, his penis tiny but anatomically correct; a tiara with ornaments in the form of horned gazelle heads; and tubular gold wig ornaments exhibited on a modern wig. What literally makes me gasp,  however, is a fnely worked inlaid  pectoral, maybe 3 " wide and 2" high, hanging from a necklace of carnelian, turquoise, gold, and lapis beads. (Where did the lapis come from, I wonder? Afghanistan?) The design on the pectoral shows two falcons with turquoise circles atop their heads.  As I'm writing, a museum guide stops to tell a small group about the pectoral. She notes that the falcons represent the sun god and the turquoise disks the sun itself. She also says that the interior ...

January 23, 2018 The image I want to write about in Gallery 110 strikes me almost immediately upon entry.  (If I'm being honest, I should acknowledge that I was feeling a little pressed for time today so may have selected something more quickly than I would have otherwise. But I don't think so.) It's described as a fecundity figure from Dynasty 12, ca. 1961-1917 B.C. What immediately catches my attention is the sexual ambiguity of the figure. It is a man, I am quite sure, because of the beard, albeit a false one. (Are women ever depicted with false beards in Egyptian art? Not that I know of. ) But his breast is pendulous and his belly rounded - as if appropriate for nursing, or for child-bearing.  In these ways, he contrasts with conventional images of Egyptian men, with their chiseled, tapering torsos. His face isn't particularly old - his cheek has  some roundness to it - but the sagging breast and belly make me think of the physical attributes of an olde...

    January 22, 2018 This room, another study gallery (109) contains literally thousands of objects, some large, some tiny, from various burials. I see beads made of amethyst and carnelian and faience and turquoise, something that appears to be a string instrument carved of wood and with frets, a wooden boat in which the oarsmen appear to be rowing vigorously, straining against the current, perhaps.  What I want to write about is an elaborately painted wooden coffin, maybe 8 feet long and 3 feet high. It sits on four bars, which appear to be painted a teal color only at the ends --the only parts visible to the casual viewer who isn't seated on the floor as I am!  The body of the coffin is divided into four vertical zones, themselves defined by about 60 long, narrow rectangles, which are in turn divided horizontally into many zones. The design in each rectangle is distinct from the designs in the adjacent rectangles, but they all appear to be symm...

January 18, 2018 At first, I'm really challenged to decide what to write about in this room (Gallery108), which is full of elaborately carved  architectural reliefs, some of thm painted, that are replete with hieroglyphs. The reliefs depict  offerings, the preparation of victuals for the afterlife, and so on. One particularly enigmatic scene shows a figure with a man's chest and arms but a hawk's head extending an ankh to a smaller figure, a hawk wearing what I take to be the double crown of the unified kingdom of Egypt (but I need to check this).  Presumably the bird represents the pharaoh/god, but what about the bird-man? I have become so used to writing about small things, though, that it takes me a moment to realize that what is most striking is the large offering altar in the middle of the room. The altar, made of pink granite, comes from a funerary temple that was outside the burial pyramid of Amenemhat I and dates from about 1950 B.C.  T...

January 16, 2018 Gallery 107 holds the famous faience figure of William the hippo. The inscription says that hippo figures were placed in tombs because they represent regeneration; the hippo was the goddess of childbirth, as I noted earlier. There is a fascinating display on how to read hieroglyphs (I could actually read a few before my trip to Egypt, but I've forgotten them all), and I learned that hieroglyphs were also written in a cursive script that is a simplification of the original form. Reminds me a bit of cursive and printed Hebrew, though of course Hebrew letters don't have both phonetic and denotative significance. I want to write about  a very small (maybe 2 1/2 inches high) wooden bust of a woman. The man who excavated it for the Met in the early 1920s identified it as the head of a man, but I don't see how that was possible. Maybe it's easier to get it right now because we are much more accustomed than he was to seein...

January 15, 2018 Gallery 106 is described as a "study gallery."  One case says that the objects come from the museum's excavations of Middle Kingdom tombs (ca. 1900 B.C.); perhaps all the objects in the room are from the same period, but the other displays say only that labels are currently beng prepared for them. Some thngs that particularly get my attention: a blue faience bowl painted inside with fine lnes that suggest something vegetal; a small blue faience lion striding forward; a statuette of a nude woman holding a child hgh in her arms, very Madonna-esque; and another statuette of a woman whose body is pierced with many small holes. (Was this last ffigure originally attached to something? Do the holes have another meaning?) What I want to write about, just because it makes me smile, is a small double vessel, perhaps 4 inches tall, of two mnkeys facing each other. They are sitting on their haunches, their knees folded up in front of them and touching the o...

January 10, 2018   This wonderful gallery (105) contains the famous wooden models from the tomb of Meketre, who was steward to the king. Of the 24 models, 13 came to the Met, and the rest went to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. The models are carved of sycamore wood and are unbelievably well-preserved; most of the painted wood carvings  and in many cases the original linen garments in which the figures were clothed are original. And they are 4000 years old! The models were meant to ensure that Meketre would have all the appurtenances of the good life in death as well. Six models are of boats, with large crews of oarsmen; one is a sporting boat, from which men could hunt birds and spear fish (at least I take this to be the purpose of the long spear). There are also interior spaces for provisioning Meketre's household: a room for fattening cattle and another for slaughtering them, a granary, a brewery, and so on. The spaces are populated by lively, active ...

January 9, 2018   Gallery 104 mostly has fragments of reliefs from the Early Middle Kingdom -- ca. 2125-1981 B.C. (1981, really so precise?) There are some charming images of different species of waterfowl, with beaks of various shapes, perched on papyrus blossoms. But what arrests me is a small area of a relief from the tomb of Queen Neferu, maybe 6 inches by 9 inches. It shows an offering table (or so the caption says) that appears to be made of wicker (but which, more realistically, I think must be incised stone) upon which are the bodies of two animals -- deer, perhaps? -- lying on their backs and thus upside down, one appearing behind the other. I take them to be dead: their heads hang down at an odd angle that strikes me as physiologically impossible (unless perhaps their throats were slashed), their forelegs are neatly crossed over their chests. I have seen images of animals being led to slaughter and of butchers at work, but I can't recall seeing an image of...

January 8, 2018   I need to consult my map of the Met. What I took to be Gallery 102 turns out, in fact, to be Gallery 103, while 102 is the tomb of Perneb, a hgh official of the 5th Dynasty whose job, it appears, was seeng to the robing and crowning of the ruler. Sort of a glorified butler? The tomb was brought over from Saqqara, not far from Cairo. Much of the interior is dark, but the well-lit "centerpiece," so to speak, is a chamber about 4 feet wide, 6 feet long, and maybe 9 feet high, and vividly painted. Three rows of priests and servants are depicted on each of the long walls. There appear to be nine figures in each row, so 54 in all, and they are all bringing offerings to Perneb to keep him well provisioned in the afterlife.  The figures I like most are three animals, which appear to be a young goat (or gazelle?), a sheep (or calf?), and an old goat with a long beard. Brown-skinned, bewigged servants with the familiar frontal-facing chest an...

January 5, 2018   Gallery 102 has many memorable Old Kingdom artifacts. I'm particularly struck by: a small bust of a monkey head- a god, I presume, a broad sly smile indicated by a long incised line carved under his flat nose; by a free-standing statue of a kneeling captive, his arms bound with rope behind him; and by a repro of a painting of six geese. What I want to write about is a double statue of a man and a woman, perhaps 32 inches high. The first thing that strikes me is that while she is smaller than he, the disparity is not nearly so extreme as it is in many other double statues. Their pose indicates deep affection - she stands to his left, her right arm encircling his waist; his left hand covers her left breast in a way that seems more protective than amorous. Both are wearing coiled wigs; her natural hair, parted in the middle, shows below her wig. They have rounded cheeks and rather flat noses; while I wouldn't describe their features as Negroid, I wou...

January 3, 2018   Gallery 101 is filled with Predynastic objects, including: ceramic pots of various sizes and shapes; a wonderful, carefully-flaked obsidian fish blade; a low lugged jar made of fossiliferous limestone whose fossils give it a beautifully intricate surface; arrowheads; and strings of beads that include carnelian and remind me of the carnelian necklace my brother bought for me when he went to Egypt. What I want to write about, though, is a rectangular ceramic painted box from the late Naqada period (3500-3300 B.C.). It is small- maybe 7 inches long, 5 inches wide, and 2.5 inches high. I like it not because, unlike many objects in the gallery, it is spectacularly well made- in fact, it bows out a bit on one side. But I can imagine the pleasure the painter took in decorating it. The top is divided by 4 lines into five horizontal bands or registers (is “register” the proper technical term?) . The top and bottom bands have the same design, a series of low mo...

January 2, 2018   I guessed correctly that the lowest-numbered gallery would be in the wing that houses the Met's Egyptian collection. Gallery 100 turns out to be an introductory gallery whose centerpiece is a large temple, cut away to reveal the intricate brickwork involving squared-off stones of various sizes. The gallery also features a pink granite life-sized recumbent lion and a stela, also pink granite,  incised with images that include Horus, the sun and a basket (with  hieroglyphs representing the name of the ruler), and a depiction of palace architecture, also very squared-off and rectangular. But the image that immediately siezes me is a small ceramic woman, perhaps eight inches high and six inches long, sitting with her legs outstretched in front of her, her hands cupping her breasts. She is nude except for wristlets and ankle bands. I'm struck by how archaic she looks, and I think she must be a fertility symbol. While her torso is slim. her h...