Ancient Egyptian Galleries
AncientEgypt 1 (RA 605); AncientEgypt 2 (RA 608), Ancient Art
Introduction
Ancient Egyptian culture, which developed along the Nile River in northeast Africa more than 5,000 years ago, left us some of the most recognizable works of art from antiquity. These two galleries contain works of art once made for Egyptian royalty and the upper and middle classes.
While the objects reflect the Egyptian aesthetic for crisp line and geometric simplicity, they were not created as “art” in the modern sense. There was no word for art in the ancient Egyptian language. Instead, these objects served functional or ritual purposes in everyday life, temple worship, or funerary practices. The ancient Egyptians believed that a statue could house the spirit of the deceased, a figure of a servant could perform physical labor for the deceased in the afterlife, and painted images of food and drink could provide nourishment for eternity.
Gina Borromeo
Exhibition images
Articles
An exploration of the intriguing relationships between works in Martin Boyce's mid-career survey exhibition at the RISD Museum and objects by Alexander Calder, Charles and Ray Eames, and Dan Flavin in the museum's collection.
How do you lay an Egyptian mummy to rest in a museum? Our curator considered a number of factors in orienting Nesmin, RISD's Egyptian mummy, in his new case in the freshly renovated gallery, but found a strange coincidence in her final decision.