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Ancient Egypt

Met’s Ancient Egypt Middle Kingdom exhibit closing Jan. 24

Tom Hoepf
Tom Hoepf
‘Lintel of Senwosret I Running Toward the God Min’ (detail), limestone, Twelfth Dynasty, reign of Senwosret I (ca. 1961–1917 B.C.). The Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, University College London (UC 14786). Photograph by Anna-Marie Kellen
‘Lintel of Senwosret I Running Toward the God Min’ (detail), limestone, Twelfth Dynasty, reign of Senwosret I (ca. 1961–1917 B.C.). The Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, University College London (UC 14786). Photograph by Anna-Marie Kellen

 

NEW YORK – The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s acclaimed “Ancient Egypt Transformed: The Middle Kingdom,” the major international exhibition that the New York Times called “high on complex beauty,” is in its final two weeks.

The exhibition’s final day will be Sunday, Jan. 24. This is the first comprehensive presentation of Middle Kingdom art and it will be on view only at the Met. It features 230 powerful and compelling masterworks—many of which have never been shown in the United States.

Created during ancient Egypt’s transformational Middle Kingdom (mid-Dynasty 11–Dynasty 13, around 2030–1650 B.C.), and fashioned with great subtlety and sensitivity, these works range in size from monumental stone sculptures to delicate examples of jewelry.

The reunification of ancient Egypt achieved by Nebhepetre Mentuhotep II—the first pharaoh of the Middle Kingdom—was followed by a great cultural flowering that lasted nearly 400 years. During the Middle Kingdom artistic, cultural, religious, and political traditions first conceived and instituted during the Old Kingdom were revived and reimagined. The works of art are drawn from the preeminent collection of the Metropolitan—which is particularly rich in Middle Kingdom material—and 37 museums and collections in North America and Europe.

The exhibition opened Oct. 12.

Ancient Egypt