An experimental lighting display has met Egyptology in a fascinating exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. When can you feast your eyes?
Although the exhibition will only be available for limited times over an eight-weekend period, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York can expect large and eager crowds for its recently opened Egyptian show. “Color the Temple: Scene 1” will present viewers with a rare glimpse into how relief sculptures in the Temple of Dendur may have originally appeared. Using precise analysis and projectors, images of the “original” colors are shown on top of the actual objects.
The museum writes, “Colors that likely decorated an ancient Egyptian temple when it was built 2,000 years ago, but have since eroded away, can be seen at The Metropolitan Museum of Art this winter. To be shown for a series of eight weekends beginning January 29, the experimental lighting display ‘Color the Temple: Scene 1’ combines the scholarly knowledge of specialists in the Egyptian Art Department with the technological expertise of staff in the MediaLab at the MET. The colors that were probably used in antiquity will be projected onto a ritual scene carved into the sandstone of the beloved Temple of Dendur in The Sackler Wing, providing visitors with a new perspective on ancient art. In the scene, the Roman emperor Augustus, depicted as a pharaoh, makes an offering to Egyptian deities. Constructed in around 15 BCE, the Temple’s external walls have retained no original color.”
To learn more, visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
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