Metropolitan Museum of Art displays Greek, Roman, Egyptian mummy portraits
Egypt-USA, Culture, 2/16/2000

In an ancient and cosmopolitan world, Egyptian, Roman and Greek mingled in a rich cultural and artistic tapestry long overlooked by Western scholars.

But this is changing with the opening Tuesday of "Ancient Faces: Mummy :Portraits of Roman Egypt"-- the first major US exhibit devoted to the mummy art of Roman Egypt-- at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

"What we want to show you is something perhaps a bit unusual. We show you the meeting of two cultures: Greek culture, which then goes into the Roman, and the ancient Egyptian culture," AP quoted Dorothea Arnold, co-curator of the show that coven the first through the third centuries AD, as saying.

The mix produces faces that look almost modern European, but they were painted to decorate caskets for mummies. In some cases, the figures wear Roman dress but are set among ancient Egyptian gods.

"These paintings, which belong in this amazing time when the cultures blend, have for a long time not really been recognized as the important art they are," Arnold said.

A single empire stretched from Aswan, Egypt, in the south, as far north as Britain, and from Morocco east to Syria and the easternmost shores of the Black Sea. In Egypt, it was a prosperous time when people of Greek origin adopted Egyptian traditions and many Egyptians adopted Greek and Roman way.

"The Greek influence was really gaining ground, especially artistically, but the Pharaonic culture was there, and this was still Egypt" said Arnold, the museum's curator of Egyptian Art.

The paintings, many on lime-wood or on linen, shrouds' use both Egyptian and Greco-Roman techniques-- and often a combination of the two. The show's works, which include 70 of the finest mummy portraits from European and North American collections, will be on view through May 7. Because many of the panels are so delicate, the show will not travel beyond New York.

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