Selected from more than 1,200 prized objects in the museum's world-class collection of Egyptian antiquities, the works on display range in date from 3600 B.C. to 400 A.D. From predynastic times through the Roman period, they document how the ancient Egyptians sought to conquer death and survive throughout eternity. Their sacred preparations for the next world, including
mummification and tomb rituals, define the distinctly Egyptian vision of the hereafter. Funerary objects reveal how many of the poor imitated the rich in terms of elaborate burials, hoping to improve their existences after death.
Intended for the Afterlife
An iconic stylized Female Figurine (Predynastic, 3650-3300 B.C.) from before pharaonic times evokes the early Egyptian zest for life. With exaggerated buttocks, fleshy thighs, pendulous breasts and curvilinear arms raised exuberantly above its bird-like head, this partially painted terracotta statuette from a burial mound, perhaps meant to be held by hand, is associated with an unknown supernatural rite of fertility or rebirth.
The Seated Statue of the Superintendent of the Granary Irukaptah (Dynasty 5, ca. 2425-2350 B.C.) is an inscribed limestone work from Egypt's Old Kingdom age of the pyramids. The official's well-proportioned body, elaborate coiffure and hands placed on his knees are characteristic of nonroyal funerary sculpture from the period. Irukaptah's ka or life force was meant to inhabit this timeless representation of the subject in case his body perished after entombment.
A glazed faience or ceramic Statuette of a Standing Hippopotamus (Dynasties 12-17, ca. 1938-1539 B.C.) depicts the ferocious animal reviled by the ancient Egyptians. The small-scale sculpture is adorned with floral patterns reminiscent of its marshy Nile River habitat. Some of the statue's legs were possibly broken before its placement in a tomb to symbolically disable the creature from wreaking havoc in the deceased's afterlife.
The Canopic Jar and Lid (Depicting a Jackal) (Dynasty 26 or later, 664-525 B.C.) is one of four limestone vessels that contained the viscera or abdominal organs (liver, lungs, intestines and stomach) removed from an Egyptian after death. In antiquity, wild jackals protectively roamed the Egyptian necropoli (cemeteries) and became associated with Anubis, the god of embalming and the religious rites of mummification.
One special highlight of the exhibition is the Brooklyn Museum's recently CT-scanned Mummy of Demetrios (1st Century A.D.).
"To Live Forever: Art and the Afterlife in Ancient Egypt" travels next to the Philbrook Museum of Art, Tulsa, Oklahoma (June 6-September 12, 2010), the San Antonio Museum of Art, Texas (October 15, 2010-January 9, 2011), the Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, Florida (February 12-May 8, 2011), the Nevada Museum of Art, Reno (June 11-September 4, 2011) and the Frist Center for the Visual Arts, Nashville, Tennessee (October 6-January 7, 2012).
Sources
Bleiberg, Edward with Kathlyn M. Cooney. To Live Forever: Egyptian Treasures from the Brooklyn Museum (exh. cat.). London: D. Giles Ltd, 2008.
Capel, Anne K. and Glenn Markoe (eds.), et al. Mistress of the House, Mistress of Heaven: Women in Ancient Egypt (exh. cat.). New York: Hudson Hills Press, 1997, 121-122.
D'Auria, Sue, Peter Lacovara and Catherine H. Roehrig. Mummies & Magic: The Funerary Arts of Ancient Egypt (exh. cat). Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1988.
Hornung, Erik and Betsy M. Bryan (eds.), et al. The Quest for Immortality: Treasures of Ancient Egypt (exh. cat.). Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art, 2002.
Taylor, John H. and Nigel C. Strudwick. Mummies: Death and the Afterlife in Ancient Egypt... Treasures from the British Museum (exh. cat.). Santa Ana: Bowers Museum of Cultural Art, 2005.