Queens of Egypt: Exhibit Preview
250 Antiquities from 15 Countries on Loan to Monaco for Exposition
"Reines d'Egypte" ("Queens of Egypt") at Monaco's Grimaldi Forum describes the varied roles of royal women through some 250 objects from collections worldwide.
The landmark exhibition Reines d'Egypte (Queens of Egypt) at Monaco's Grimaldi Forum (July 12-September 10, 2008) assembles some 250 ancient Egyptian masterworks from 39 public and private collections in 15 countries. Major lenders and the number of their works on loan include: Berlin's Ägyptisches Museum und Papyrussammlung (14); Cairo's Egyptian Museum (27); New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art (26); London's British Museum (20); Turin's Museo Egizio (14); and Paris' Musée du Louvre (20).
The show is organized by Christiane Ziegler, distinguished former Curator of Egyptian Antiquities at the Louvre. Its installation is designed by François Payet, responsible for the Grimaldi Forum's stunning Imperial St. Petersburg exposition in 2004.
Ancient Egyptian queens' principal roles as wife, mother and daughter are explored in this presentation. Attention is paid to the notable Hatshepsut (r. 1479-1458 B.C.), Tiy, Nefertiti, Nefertari and Cleopatra (r. 51-30 B.C.) as well as lesser-known sovereigns. Described are secondary wives, including foreign princesses who played a significant part in marital diplomacy between Egypt and its neighbors. Dr. Ziegler also demonstrates that the mother-wife-daughter association was theologically symbolic of perpetual creation and important to the pharaoh's survival in the afterlife.
The objects in Queens of Egypt are arranged thematicallly.
- Cleopatra: The Myth contrasts the famous Egyptian queen's popular image with the historical reality of her Greek heritage and Ptolemaic Egypt.
- The King's Mother stresses the matriarch's cultic importance to the pharaoh's divine nature as the result of a mystical union between a god and a woman.
- The Great Royal Wife explores the spouse's courtly roles as the ruler's sister or daughter. Issues of incest and consanguineous marriages are addressed.
- Secondary Wives, Harem and Concubines features funerary artifacts of three minor spouses of Pharaoh Thutmose III (r. 1479-1425 B.C.). Foreign princesses' significance in diplomacy during the New Kingdom is described.
- The Queen's Image: Feminine Beauty and Divine Attributes illustrates royal and religious representations of the queen, focusing on her youth, apparel and various crowns.
- The Queen's Religious Role examines her participation in ancient Egyptian rituals, especially during the pharaoh's Sed Festival or royal jubilee. Nefertiti's prominence in scenes of religious ceremonies and private life with her husband, the heretic pharaoh Akhenaten (r. 1353-1336 B.C.), is explained.
- Queens or Princesses: The Holy Priestesses examines these devotees of the Theban god Amun.
- Divine Queens: Ahmose-Nefertari discusses the cult of the mother of Amenhotep I (r. 1526-1506 B.C.).
- The Queen's Political Role.
- The Councilor: Queen Tiy presents the wife of Amenhotep III (r. 1391-1353 B.C.) as an influential force during the reigns of her husband and his religiously controversial successor before and during the monotheistic revolution of the Amarna period.
Sources:
- Arnold, Dorothea, et al. The Royal Women of Amarna (exh. cat.). New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1997.
- Capel, Anne K. and Glenn E. Markoe (eds.), et al. Mistress of the House, Mistress of Heaven: Women in Ancient Egypt (exh. cat.). New York: Hudson Hills Press, 1997, 103-120.
- Roehrig, Catharine, Renée Dreyfus and Cathleen Keller (eds.). Hatshepsut: From Queen to Pharaoh (exh. cat.). New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2005.
- Ziegler, Christiane, et al. Queens of Egypt (exh. cat.). Paris: Parution, 2008.
