Ancient Egyptian Art; Middle Ages; Agyptenrezeption; Rome; Roman Archaeology; Sphinx
Abstract :
[en] As Charles Burnett put it in the incipit of a seminal article on the “Images of Ancient Egypt in the Latin Middle Ages” (2003), “It is commonly thought that the Latin Middle Ages was a barren period for knowledge of and interest in Egypt – between the enthusiasms of the late hellenistic Neoplatonists and the rediscovery of Horapollo and the Corpus Hermeticum in the 15th century.” In this sense, and from the vantage point of this conference aiming at “A Cultural Biography of Ancient Egypt” (outside Egypt), the medieval era can be considered as a middle age or period, between classical Antiquity and the Renaissance. The paper will attempt to characterise what really changed in this perspective with the end of Antiquity and the collapse of the Roman Empire in the western figurative uses of and references to Ancient Egypt, addressing the multiplication and diversification of discourses about this bygone civilization, as well as the issue of the loss of the Egyptian style. It will then focus on the exceptional case of some Egyptian-looking sphinxes and lions produced in Rome in the 13th century AD, in order to try clarifying their meaning and agency
Disciplines :
Art & art history Archaeology Classical & oriental studies History
Author, co-author :
Laboury, Dimitri ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département des sciences historiques > Archéologie égyptienne
Lekane, Marie ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département des sciences historiques > Histoire de l'art et archéologie du moyen-âge
Language :
English
Title :
Lost in translation? On "aegyptiaca" in the Middle Ages
Publication date :
2020
Main work title :
Beyond Egyptomania: objects, style and agency
Main work alternative title :
[fr] Au delà de l'égyptomanie: objects, style et agentivité