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PRESS RELEASE
EGYPTIAN TREASURES GO ON SHOW AT THE BARBER
SACRED AND PROFANE:
Treasures of Ancient Egypt
18 June 2010 - 18 January 2012
The Myers Collection of Egyptian Antiquities, which belongs to Eton College, is not only one of the most stunning assemblages of ancient Egyptian decorative art worldwide, but also a window into the distant world of travelers in 19th-century Egypt and the Middle East.
Educated at Eton College and Sandhurst, Major William Joseph Myers (1858–1899) started collecting in Egypt in the 1880s. The country was a magnet for painters, novelists, archaeologists, collectors and adventurers, and it was in Cairo that Verdi’s Egyptian-themed Aida opened in 1871. Spectacular archaeological discoveries were regularly made, and throwing mummy-unwrapping parties was fashionable in Europe and America. On Myers’s untimely death in 1899, Eton College became the beneficiary of his collection, diaries and library. Sacred and Profane celebrates this extraordinary bequest and launches the University of Birmingham’s partnership with Eton College and Johns Hopkins University, USA.
Statuettes of mortals and gods, mummy masks, jewellery, pottery and papyri are displayed next to the Barber Institute’s own collection of Egyptian coins from Roman and Byzantine Alexandria, in a display that explores the complex relationships between man-made artefacts and their divine purposes.
The exhibition’s lead curator is Dr Eurydice Georganteli, Curator of the Coin Collection at the Barber Institute and Lecturer in Numismatics at the University of Birmingham, supported by the University’s Senior Lecturer in Egyptology, Dr Martin Bommas. It is also accompanied by a web-based virtual gallery, created by the University’s Visual and Spatial Technology Centre (VISTA), displaying a selection of highlights of the Myers collection. A UK first, some 140 artefacts have been scanned by laser and digitized, and, as well as a selection being presented as mpg files on the website, a further virtual horde of objects will be able to be downloaded and explored from all angles, rotated and magnified by the user at will to explore shape or surface.
Said Dr Georganteli: ‘We are delighted to be working with Eton College and with colleagues both within the University of Birmingham and at Johns Hopkins University to bring expertise from many different disciplines together in this fascinating project.
‘We believe it is the first time an exhibition has attempted to explore ancient Egyptian artefacts so thematically, as opposed to interpreting them using a purely chronological, narrative approach. We are also pushing the boundaries by including the pictorial tradition of 2nd-century AD Fayum portraits and Egypt’s links with the Byzantine empire’s sophisticated monetary economy. It is also very exciting that the Eton Myers collection will soon be made even more accessible to the public through the digitization process.’
The exhibition is complemented by a book, also entitled Sacred and Profane, as well as by a fascinating programme of lectures, gallery tours and talks, children’s craft workshops, and other varied activities and events.
Images for publication can be downloaded from the following webpage: www.barber.org.uk/sacredimages
For more details, please see our website at www.barber.org.uk/sacredimages. The VISTA virtual Eton Myers collection is at www.vista.bham.ac.uk/projects/Eton_Myers.htm
For further press information, or to arrange an interview with Eurydice Georganteli, please contact Barber Press and Marketing Officer Andrew Davies on 0121 414 2946/07769 958114 or at andrewdavies@barber.org.uk.
| For further information, please contact Andrew Davies, Barber Press and Marketing Officer, on 0121 414 2946 or andrewdavies@barber.org.uk |