Museum Visit

Museum Visit

Introduction:

Going to the museum is one of my favorite things to do. I just acquired this hobby last year, when I took my first art class. Since then, I have been to many museums in Baltimore, New York and the DC area, however, the Walters Museum is by far my favorite. I looked forward to going again, and reacquainting myself with my favorite art pieces, as well as doing the assignment.

However, the blissfulness I expected from this encounter turned out not to be, as the Eternal Egypt collection from the British Museum was in town, and the museum was crowded with people. After paying the required fees, I headed to the first gallery which had small statues unearthed from ancient Egypt. I really wanted to find similar objects to what we had studied in class so I would have a sound basis of comparison to work with however nothing in the first few galleries caught my eye. There was a sculpture titled 'Unknown Man', that reminded me of the Kore found in Ancient Greece. However, there was not sufficient information to write about it, so I moved on.

The third gallery had a Book of the Dead, divided into three chapters. There was a large crowd around this exhibit, so once again I moved on. The next gallery I came to dismayed me also. No large sculptures caught my eye, and it seemed that I was doomed to fail this project. In frantic distress, I stopped by every single piece, willing some feeling or some logic to take hold of me and compel me to write about it. However, I came up with nothing, everything seemed tedious and normal, and there was nothing unique and special.

I reached the end of the collection, and there was nothing....nothing in the British Museum collection that I thought was worth writing about. In utter abjection, I meandered on through the museum, and I found myself on the second floor. Having been to the Walters several times, I had seen their collection of Egyptian works, but something bid me stay. So I followed the feeling, and finally found the perfect exhibit, just what I had been looking for.

Ankhen-sekmet Entertained by a Harpist:

This is a low-relief limestone carving from the Late Period of the Egyptian Civilization, between the 26th and 30th dynasty, circa 600-340 BCE. It was found in a tomb, carved on one of the walls in precise carvings (wall text). The approximate size would be 3 feet tall and 2 feet wide. The carving shows four people, a man seated on a decorated stool (like the ones the pharaohs used) with a woman standing behind him, her hand on his shoulder and another man playing a harp. There was also a smaller figure right in front of the harp player, which I thought was an apprentice or assistant of sorts, however, the wall text indicated that it was Ankhen-sekmet's daughter. It also said that his wife's name is Hathorem-hat and the harpist in named ...