«A magnificent Egyptian painting, which is about 3300 years old, depicting an Egyptian woman dancer, performing a backbend, commonly found in performances of contortion, gymnastics and dances. The backbend, which requires intense training, shows the superior professionalism, talents and high skills of the dancer.
The dancing woman, wearing a typical black dance costume and gold hoop earrings, is perfectly at ease while bending, and in total control and balance. Her curly, wavy hair is left loose, and is flowing in a natural pattern in harmony with her dance movement. But her earrings are pointed upwards, defying gravitational force, and seems a bit odd in an otherwise perfect composition of art. It is hard to believe that the artist who painted this picture is aware of the effect of gravity on her hair which is lightweight, but he ignored it in the case of the comparatively heavier earrings.
However, the admirable bala...nce of colors and high standards of artistry seen in this painting requires very high levels of expertise. Like several other Ostraka art pieces, this painting is also from the ancient Egyptian village of Deir el-Medina, home to the artisans who worked on the tombs of the Valley of the Kings in Thebes where the Pharaohs of the 18th to 20th Dynasties of the New Kingdom period (1550 BC to 1080 BC) were buried.
The artwork is painted on ostracon, singular of ostraca, which refer to pieces of pottery and fragments of limestone. Because Papyrus was expensive, ostracon was extensively used in ancient Egypt because of its durability, cheap or free availability and ease of working on it. It was the most preferred medium for not only drawing and painting, but also everyday writing, such as letters, documents, receipts, stories, prescriptions, etc.
The art piece in this picture survived in an impeccable condition despite several centuries of neglect until it was collected by Bernardino Drovetti (1776-1852), Consul General of France in Egypt. Possibly the work would not have survived so long, if it was created on any other media, other than ostraca.
Though Drovetti collected Egyptian art and antiquities in the name of France, he built up a huge personal collection for himself. In 1824, King Charles Felix (Carlo Felice Giuseppe Maria) acquired much of his personal collection consisting of 5,268 pieces, which later formed the foundation for the Museo Egizio in Turin, the second largest Egyptology museum after Cairo.»
(via Francisco Filipe Cruz, in Facebook)
O nosso escriba-cinéfilo Paulo Ferrero veio, sem o saber, ao encontro do meu pensamento e das tarefas que nas últimas semanas me têm ocupado: a preparação de uma segunda edição do livro Estudos Sobre Erotismo no Antigo Egito.
ResponderEliminarA obra está esgotada desde há alguns anos e chegou finalmente a altura de fazer uma segunda edição revista e aumentada, até porque, sendo a primeira edição de 1995, muitas coisas novas apareceram entretanto sobre esta temática.
Talvez se consiga editar o livro antes do Natal, e até lá continuarão a pairar no meu dia-a-dia imagens como esta acrobática dançarina mas também outras imagens como a esbelta figura de Hathor e mesmo o inevitável e grande Min.
Um elogio ao desporto e à dança, que no Antigo Egito, já eram artes bastante praticadas!
ResponderEliminarRecordo-me dessa obra sobre erotismo ou de uma obra sobre o mesmo tema há anos na livraria da faculdade...infelizmente não comprei na altura.