Volume 56, Number 11 · July 2, 2009
The Charms of Ancient Egypt
By Ingrid D. Rowland
Les Portes du Ciel: Visions du monde dans l'Égypte ancienne
an exhibition at the Louvre, Paris, March 6–June 29, 2009.
Catalog of the exhibition edited by Marc Étienne.
Paris: Somogy/Musée du Louvre Éditions, 383 pp., $39.00 (paper)
L'Égypte ancienne entre mémoire et sciences
by Jan Assmann
Paris: Hazan/Musée du Louvre Éditions, 344 pp., $25.00
With its splendid new exhibition 'The Gates of Heaven' ('Les Portes du Ciel'), the Louvre promises a view of ancient Egypt through ancient Egyptian eyes, and it delivers on that promise with captivating style. Originally the museum had planned to mount a show dedicated to its excavations at Saqqara, but curator Marc Étienne eventually proposed a completely different idea: a broad thematic exploration of the Egyptians' beliefs about life and death, focusing on the entire culture rather than on one specific place or period. As Étienne notes, scholarly understanding of Egypt has changed considerably in recent years; as further proof, in addition to the catalog, the Louvre has also published a lecture series delivered in connection with the exhibition by the Egyptologist Jan Assmann, whose work in the field has been particularly wide-ranging and insightful. Assmann's lectures (the first in a new series called the Chaire du Louvre) are as exciting as the show itself; they begin by comparing Egyptian religion with the book of Exodus and with Christian theology, and end in a penetrating analysis of Verdi's Aida.
Review, 2759 words
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