Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs 

So what are your memories of the first Tutankhamun exhibition at the British Museum? It was in 1972 and the golden image of the handsome boy king enthralled the whole country and attracted a record one and a half million visitors. If you didn’t go, you most certainly knew someone who did go and never stopped talking about.

Now, Tut is back. Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs has just opened at the O2 centre, the former Millenium Dome. Already nearly half a million people have already booked. Will you make the effort this time?

So far, reviews have been mixed. It’s ‘tacky’, said the Times adding for good measure: ‘It’s a rapaciously commercial show, charging you £20 a pop and shamelessly peddling the most ridiculous King Tut tat in its shop – including its bad-taste bestseller: a sarcophagus tissue box that dispensed its contents through one nostril.’

On the whole, however, it sounds definitely worthwhile. The exhibition is twice the size of the last Tutankhamun show, with 130 objects from different periods beginning with Tut’s great grandfather’s time. According to art critic, Rachel Campbell-Johnston, these objects are astonishing, their immaculate craftsmanship giving clues the exotic culture which produced them.

‘What this show, with the luxury of something like 200,000 square feet at its disposal, can at the very least offer us is a chance to study them properly. A monumental and entrancingly beautiful sculpted head of the pharaoh, Ahmenotop, for instance, is given not only its own gallery but its own pillared approach. It merits the ceremony. It is a masterpiece.’

She’s less ecstatic about the Tutankhamun tomb itself, not least because the golden mask was considered too fragile to bring to London and is notably absent from the galleries dedicated to the boy king’s burial treasures. Only a few of more than 5,000 excavated pieces are shown – though these include some wonderful treasures: a cobra diadem that protected the mummified pharaoh, the gold dagger that lay by his side, the falcon-shaped chest-piece and the inlaid collar that he wore when first crowned.

According to Campbell-Johnston, the exhibition is less about the treasure than about the man behind the golden mask. ‘This show is at its most moving where it is most intimate,’ she says. ‘Look at the delicately engraved little shrine for a statue, for instance, and study its images of Tutankhamun and his queen (who was probably also his half sister – and hardly surprising he should take her if an entrancingly beautiful statue of her own sister bears any family resemblance). See the slender boy king pouring wine for his wife; watch her tying on his heavy collar or anointing his skin; witness the tenderness in the mutual touch of their hands. No more intimate picture of a pharaoh’s life exists’.

Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharoahs runs until August 30 2008 at the O2 Centre in London.

For booking details, see http://www.tutankhamunexhibitionlondon.co.uk

 

laterlife interest

The above article is part of the features section of laterlife.com called laterlife interest. laterlife interest contains a variety of articles of interest for visitors to laterlife.com written by a number of experienced and new journalists.

It includes both one off articles and also associated regular columns of a more specialist nature such as Healthwise, Talkback, Gardener's Diary, and a beauty section called Looking good in later life.

There's also 'It could be you' by Maggi Stamp laterlife's counsellor on human relationships. 

Also don't forget to take a look at our regular IT question and answer section called YoucandoIT by IT trainer and author Jackie Sherman.

To view the latest articles click on laterlife interest or to view indexes to previous articles click on laterlife interest index. To search for articles about a certain topic, use the site search feature at the top of the navigation.