Melbourne’s National Gallery of Victoria has announced it will showcase the internationally acclaimed exhibition, Pharaoh exhibition in winter 2024. The exhibition – the biggest collection of its kind in Australia – encompasses around 3,000 years of ancient Egyptian art and history through more than 500 works on loan from the British Museum.
Melbourne’s National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) has announced it will showcase more than 500 pieces of ancient Egyptian history in the internationally acclaimed, Pharaoh, next June as part of its 2024 Melbourne Winter Masterpieces exhibition.
Key Takeaways
- Pharaoh includes more than 500 Egyptian artifacts on loan from the British Museum.
- Artefacts vary from tombs and coffins to jewellery and sculptures.
- The collection, which was especially curated for the NGV by the British Museum, is the largest collection of Egyptian artifacts ever mounted in Australia.
Curated especially for the National Gallery of Victoria by the British Museum as part of the Victorian Government’s Melbourne Winter Masterpiece series, Pharaoh is the largest international exhibition the British Museum has ever presented in its 270-year history. With many works on display in Australia for the first time, the exhibition is the largest ancient Egyptian exhibition ever mounted in the country.
Daniel Antoine, Keeper, Egypt and Sudan, British Museum, decribes the collection of objects as “one of the most comprehensive outside of Europe”. He says the collection “tells the fascinating story of life and death in the ancient Nile Valley in unparalleled depth and breadth.”
“We are thrilled to be able to share the collection with the Australian public and celebrate the extraordinary artistry of the ancient Egyptians with a new international audience,” Antoine says.
Among the objects are monumental sculptures, tomb and temple architecture, coffins and funerary objects, as well as a significant display of exquisite ancient Egyptian jewelry.
Spanning from the 1st Dynasty (c.3000 BCE) to the Roman period (3rd century CE), Pharaoh explores the lives, myths and images of the successive rulers of ancient Egypt through exquisitely crafted examples of art, design and architecture. The works on display were commissioned by and celebrate some of Egypt’s most famous kings and queens, including the boy king Tutankhamun; Ramses II and Queen Nefertari; Khufu, builder of the Great Pyramid of Giza;as well as foreign leaders such as Alexander the Great.
Pieces of note
- A superbly carved green siltstone Head of Tuthmose III, one of ancient Egypt’s most successful military pharaohs of the 18th Dynasty who expanded Egypt’s empire to its greatest extent. Wearing the tall white crown of Upper Egypt and cobra headdress (uraeus) – the consummate symbol of royalty – the head presents the timeless image of the Egyptian pharaoh.
- At just over 5cm wide, the earliest object in the exhibition is a small ivory label depicting King Den of the 1st Dynasty, shown as a powerful ruler subduing his enemy with physical force.
- A larger-than-life limestone statue of Ramses II (c.1279-1213 BCE) depicts one of ancient Egypt’s most famous kings as a high priest, making offerings to appease the gods in his capacity as the gods’ representative on earth. Ramses II was one of Egypt’s longest ruling pharaohs who had numerous wives, fathered more than eighty children and commissioned a vast number of temples, monuments and statuary for his own self-glorification.
- The Seated statue of Pharaoh Sety II, c.1200-1194 BCE, a grandson of Ramses II, is the most complete sculpture of a pharaoh in the British Museum’s collection to survive from ancient Egypt, offering audiences a rare chance to experience the exceptional craftsmanship of Egyptian sculptors.
The exhibition will introduce a new generation of art and history lovers to the gallery, NGV Director Tony Ellwood says.
“Pharaoh seeks to introduce a new generation of visitors to the perennially fascinating visual culture of ancient Egypt through an unprecedented exhibition of sculpture, architecture, jewellery and more from the British Museum in London. The NGV’s exhibition will place precedence on the exceptional craftsmanship of the ancient Egyptians, highlighting their refined artistic sensibility and technical skill,” Elwood says.
Pharaoh is on display from June 14 – October 6, 2024 at NGV International on St Kilda Road, Melbourne.
