Feature: 'Eternal Egypt' lives on

CHICAGO, April 22 (UPI) -- When most people think of Egyptian art, they likely picture flat strangely contorted figures, one hand high, the other low, line dancing across a wall.

But the 144 pieces of jewelry, sculpture, masks, papyrus scrolls, stelae and reliefs on display at the Field Museum through August belie the image, showing an array of objects few outside the art world can imagine.

"Eternal Egypt," which opens to the public Friday, is based on the British Museum collection and complements the Field's own.

"This exhibit is like an art gallery of life of the palace," said David Foster, project administrator of the show. "Our permanent hall gives you life in the street. It (the museum's two Egyptian exhibits taken together) puts it in context and presents a different perspective."

Foster said the sheer sophistication of the art is amazing, especially since all of it, with very few exceptions, was produced by anonymous artisans, working with copper and bronze tools in an almost assembly-line fashion.

"When you see this art up close and personal and start to look closely, just the level of sophistication and artistic skill is just breathtaking -- just the skill and beauty of the pieces," Foster said. "The variety is also breathtaking."

Foster said Westerners can't help but be fascinated.

"It's the almost inconceivable longevity," said Foster, noting the exhibit spans 3,500 years. "Since the 18th and 19th centuries, Egypt has kind of encapsulated everything that fascinated Westerners. ... Certainly most people who have traveled there or have seen Egypt in photos and films, appreciate the stark beauty of the environment -- the river, the desert, the sun, the monuments that have survived. It's breathtaking."

While none of the artworks on display is associated with any curses, Foster said nearly all "were imbued with extra dimensions, even magical dimensions.

"This art was not created for its beauty. Almost everything was created for functional reasons first and beauty second," he said. "A statue was created and a name put on it. That text, when used correctly, had an animating force to the Egyptian mind. That statue became alive, imbued with a hyper reality, or being, over and above its nature as an aesthetic object."

Among the highlights of the exhibit is the 5 1/2-foot pink granite head of Pharaoh Amenhotep III, who ruled the empire at its peak and fancied himself a deity. The head came from a 26-foot-tall statue and is paired with a 7-foot, pink granite lion resting on its forepaws that came from another temple dedicated to the Egyptian ruler.

"The craftsmanship is exquisite," Foster said.

Then there's the beautifully illustrated scroll with the magic spells and incantations Egyptians believed they needed to get into the next world. Such scrolls are known as the Book of the Dead and were produced by the thousands. The one on display is the Papyrus of Ani, who was a royal scribe.

A surprising item is a vividly painted portrait of a very European-looking woman. Her hair is short and curly and her clothing is blue and white. The painting is believed to have been placed on the woman's mummy, likely during Roman rule.

Egyptian art was very stylized, in part because Egyptians believed every part of the body needed to be seen if a person was to make it into the afterlife. Foster said Egyptian artists "deconstructed" the body and then put it back together. But there was room for variation.

"There's a mask of the pharaoh who precedes Sesostris III, an important Middle Kingdom pharaoh," Foster said. "The expressiveness of the face was a radical departure and unique example of Egyptian art. It shows boldly and dramatically how the art diverged from these conventions. This type of portrait developed and disappeared again."

In the small statuary on exhibit, feet are prominently displayed, often well out of proportion to the rest of the body.

Foster marvels the relics have survived the centuries of looting and pillaging. Some tombs and their objects were defaced by followers of subsequent rulers who wanted to take the luster off a predecessor's reign. In the late 19th century, Napoleon's troops used the Sphinx for target practice, shooting off its nose.

Such disregard for the cultural record has not been relegated to history, Foster noted, citing the recent sacking of the Baghdad museum.

"Hopefully, the thieves will try to ransom the artifacts and we'll get them back," he said.