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The
Art of Medicine in Ancient Egypt
Open
until January 15, 2006
@
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
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The
Edwin Smith Papyrus (columns
6–7)
Dynasty 16–17, ca. 1600 B.C.
ThebesPapyrus and ink; H. 33 cm
(13 in.), L. 4.68 m (15 ft. 3 1/2
in.)
New York Academy of Medicine |
Isis
Nursing Horus
Ptolemaic Period (ca. 300–30
B.C.)
Provenance unknown
Faience; H. 16.9 cm (6.7 in.), W.
5 cm (2 in.), D. 6.9 cm (2.7 in.)
Joseph Pulitzer Bequest Fund, 1955
(55.121.5) |
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A
long-neglected area of Egyptian
art—works associated with
protection and healing—will
be explored in the exhibition
"The Art of Medicine in
Ancient Egypt." By focusing
on this fundamental, yet little-known
aspect of Egyptian art, the
exhibition will provide a new
perspective on some sixty-five
of the most beautiful and intriguing
works from the Museum's renowned
collection. The centerpiece
will be the Edwin Smith Surgical
Papyrus—the sole borrowed
work in the exhibition—which
is on loan from the New York
Academy of Medicine. This manuscript,
dating from the Second Intermediate
Period (ca. 1650–1550 B.C.),
is one of only two complete
medical texts from ancient Egypt.
Rarely seen even by Egyptologists,
the manuscript's presentation
at the Metropolitan represents
its first public display in
more than half a century.
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More
About the Works on View:
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Statue
of Yuny
Dynasty
19, reigns of Seti I–Ramesses
II (ca. 1290–1260 B.C.)
Assiut, Deir Durunka, Limestone;
H. 129 cm (4 ft. 2.8 in.), W.
55 cm (21.7 in.), D. 90.5 cm
(35.6 in.)
Rogers Fund, 1933 (33.2.1)
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The
ancient Egyptians inhabited a perilous
land. In addition to the dangerous animals
with which they came into regular contact—including
lions, hippopotami, crocodiles, snakes,
and scorpions—they were subject to
diseases whose invisible causes were not
understood. As a result, the Egyptians
amassed a wealth of knowledge about the
treatment of injuries and disease. Furthermore,
to protect themselves from perils, both
seen and unseen, they incorporated powerful
talismans in their art.
Flanking the entrance to the exhibition
will be two of the best-preserved colossal
statues of Sekhmet, the lion-headed goddess
of healing—her name means "the
powerful one"—who was also the
goddess of war, violent storms, and pestilence.
(The physicians of ancient Egypt belonged
to her priesthood.) The seven-foot-tall
statues originally stood with some six
hundred similar statues in the mortuary
temple of Amenhotep III (Dynasty 18, ca.
1390–1352 B.C.).
A limestone statue of Yuny (early Dynasty
19, ca. 1290 B.C.)—a priest of Sekhmet
and the son of a famous physician—originally
stood in a shrine dedicated to Yuny and
his father, to which pilgrims came to
pray for aid in preventing or combating
illness. Yuny is shown in a kneeling position,
holding the elaborately ornamented shrine
of Osiris, god of regeneration.
The surgical papyrus that is the centerpiece
of the exhibition was purchased in Luxor
in 1862 by Edwin Smith, an American living
in Cairo. On the basis of the handwriting,
it has been dated to about 1600 B.C.,
but on the basis of language, the work
is believed to be a copy of another text
that was written some three centuries
earlier. The work includes descriptions,
examination procedures, diagnoses, and
treatments for forty-eight distinct injuries,
beginning at the top of the head and ending
at the shoulder blades and chest. The
injuries listed are consistent with those
sustained in war or construction.
Coffins, mummies, and mummy portraits
that relate to the theme of medicine will
also be shown. Nesiamun, a man whose mummy
(ca. 700 B.C.) was discovered in Metropolitan
Museum excavations in 1923, was found—through
CAT-scan technology—to have suffered
serious injury, possibly caused by collision
with a chariot. (The actual CAT scans
will be displayed nearby.) A mummy portrait
(ca. A.D. 160) realistically depicts a
scar resulting from surgery that would
have improved the vision and facial appearance
of a youth afflicted with a congenital
lesion.
The Metternich Stela, one of the most
perfectly preserved objects from ancient
Egypt, was presented to the Austrian count
Metternich by the viceroy of Egypt, Muhammad
Ali, in 1828. Originally erected in Heliopolis
(part of modern Cairo) during the reign
of Nectanebo II (360–343 B.C.), it
is covered with finely detailed three-dimensional
reliefs, incised images, and texts for
protection from and cure of snakebites
and scorpion stings. The magical quality
of the words was thought to be activated
by reciting the texts aloud or by drinking
water that had been poured over the stone.
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Bowl
with Human Feet
Naqada I–early Naqada II
(ca. 3900–3650 B.C.)
Provenance unknown
Polished red pottery; H. 9.8 cm
(3.9 in.), Diam. 13.5 cm (5.3
in.)
Rogers Fund, 1910 (10.176.113)
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Other highlights include a physician's
ointment jar; a statue of Imhotep, an
ancient Egyptian official who was deified
in Egypt and, under the Greeks, became
identified with Asclepius, the ancient
Greek god of medicine; vessels associated
with healing substances; tubes for disease-preventing
cosmetics; magical implements; vases in
the shape of flowers that had medicinal
or analgesic properties; and a footed
libation bowl that acts simultaneously
as a three-dimensional hieroglyphic rebus
meaning "clean."
The
exhibition is made possible in part by
Raymond and Beverly Sackler.
Exhibition Organizer
The exhibition is organized by James P.
Allen, curator in the Department of Egyptian
Art.
For more information>
http://www.metmuseum.org
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