Special Exhibition Review: Hatshepsut: From Queen to Pharaoh
Sunday April 2, 2006
Hatshepsut: From Queen to Pharaoh opened at The Metropolitan Museum of Art last week and promptly overwhelmed more than one reviewer. Not so with Stan Parchin, Senior Correspondent for Museums and Special Exhibitions, who is a specialist in Ancient Egyptian art, has admired artifacts from Hatshepsut's reign (as displayed by the Met) since he was a child, and thoroughly devoured and extrapolated every single word of the exhibition catalogue for our benefit.
We have the great good fortune of Stan's encyclopedic knowledge here. No cheap jokes from him about cross-dressing ... he treats Hatshepsut with the respect she deserves as a singularly powerful woman. He also explains that, especially given the painstaking process of discovering and reassembling Hatshepsut-related artifacts (which were very nearly successfully obliterated from all of history, after her death), the number of rooms and artifacts devoted to this show are close to perfect. Give it a read for both the lovely images and the extensive information. Stan cannot be thanked enough for this review; he was clearly in his element and rose magnificently to the task.
Related Articles:
- Hatshepsut: From Queen to Pharaoh - Image Gallery
Eight high-resolution images of items for which we ran out of space within the exhibition review. A visual treat. - Pharaoh Hatshepsut of Egypt (from About Ancient History).
- Hatshepsut, Pharaoh of Egypt (from About Women's History).
- Queen Hatshepsut's Deir el-Bahri (from About Archaeology).
Comments
The Brooklyn Museum has two shows: Egypt Through Other Eyes: The Popularization of Ancient Egypt and Egypt Reborn: Art for Eternity
This reporter’s article sounds like he lived in ancient Egypt. My next stop is to the exhibition with my wife and child. He’s good. I’m intrigued.