Until Death Do Us Part

One of the most common types of figural Roman sarcophagi shows a wedding scene. The sarcophagus is meant ultimately to hold the remains of both husband and wife, who will then remain together in the hereafter. Frequently, if the couple was willing to pay for it, the lid might show the husband and wife reclining together. In some cases, they are joined by the figure of a child, likely one who died young or who was lost in childbirth. In those cases, the child might also be interred with the parents that they might be reunited in the great beyond. The wedding scenes are fairly conventional. The husband and wife join hands to make their vows, a priestess behind them and a cupid below, pulling their hands together. One either side are fertility figures: to the left (the man’s side) a figure with a bare torso holds a crown of wheat aloft, while on the right (the woman’s side) a female figure holds a cornucopia, indicative of the hope for a marriage with lots of children. Sometimes Juno, Venus, or Hymen– goddesses related to marriage and Eros–are also attendants at the wedding.

Cow and Calf

Here’s the first of four images from a tomb in the Egyptian site of Saqqara. In this relief, a man in a boat is trying to entice a cow to cross the river. To accomplish this, he has taken her calf and is dangling it off the stern, much to the mother cow’s chagrin. But the trick is working.

Gone Fishing

Here’s a second image from a tomb at Saqqara, Egypt. This relief shows a fishing scene, with a man in a boat dipping a sort of scoop-like net. The most compelling detail, however, are the reeds on the left, and if you look closely you’ll see a frog with his eyes on a dragonfly (the frog, too, is seeking a meal, like the fishermen; but he seems to be a bit intimidated by the size of the dragonfly). Above them a cricket suns himself on a branch. Note, too, the prow of the reed canoe the fishermen are using.

In the Details

Here’s a third image from a tomb at Saqqara, Egypt. It shows a detail from a procession of men bringing offerings to a temple. Here, you can see details of a finely woven basket, to the left fronds of papyrus, and two live ducks who seem to realize their fate.

Let’s Dance!

Here’s a fourth image from tombs at Saqqara, in Egypt. This one shows a row of dancers performing a dance of worship. It required, as you can see, quite a degree of athleticism and flexibility.

Islamic Technology

Throughout the Middle Ages, Muslim cultures were for the most part more advanced than “western” or Christian cultures. Geometry, mathematics, and astronomy were particularly advanced. These studies had implications for technology, such as the astrolabe, used for navigation. Here’s an Ottoman-era astrolabe (detail) from the 15th century during the reign of Sultan Beyezid.

Calligraphic Kufic

The Museum of Islamic Art in Cairo is not often visited by tourists, who focus instead on ancient Egyptian wonders, but it’s well worth visiting and has a fantastic collection. There’s a very nice set of Abbasid bowls from Iraq dating from around the 8th or 9th century. They have elegant inscriptions in Arabic in them, in Kufic script in a deep black, like this one here.

Ivory Pharaoh

This is a detail from a remarkable artifact in the new Museum of Egyptian Civilization in Cairo. It’s from an ivory chariot, with the cart showing victorious deeds of the pharaoh. Here, the pharaoh grabs the hair of a group of his enemies and readies to ‘smite’ them. The raise their hands in submission, a common motif in the art that glorifies the pharaoh’s military exploits.

Egyptian Surgical Tools

This picture was taken at the Ptolemaic Period Egyptian temple of Horus and Sobek at Komobo (ca. 180-47 BCE). Horus was the Egyptian falcon-headed god (son of Isis and Osiris), while Sobek was the crocodile-headed god. Crocodiles were worshipped here, and on site is a museum of crocodile mummies. Komobo is a rare example of a double temple, where two deities were worshipped in the same building. On a wall in the back section of the temple complex there are these reliefs that show Egyptian surgical and medical implements. Some of them resemble their modern counterparts.

Giulio’s Giants

The renowned painter and architect Giulio Romano began his career as one of Raphael’s assistants in Rome, and he’s especially known for finishing the famous stanze in the Vatican. After Rome, Romano went to the city of Mantua, which was controlled by the Gonzaga family. There, he designed the huge Palazzo del Te for that ruling family. In addition, he was responsible for some of the famous frescoes that decorated the interior. The best known and most impressive set of frescoes are found in a room known as the Sala dei Giganti or Room of the Giants (ca. 1540).The frescoes show the Olympian gods in their victory over the Giants. On the walls below the giants are terrified in defeat.

Terrified Titans

Here’s another detail from Giulio Romano’s Room of the Giants (Sala dei Giganti) frescoes in the Palazzo del Te, Mantua, dating from ca. 1540.

Graffiti Fingers

Here’s a third picture taken of Giulio Romano’s frescoes in the Room of the Giants in the Palazzo del Te in Mantua. The hand of this giant is about a meter across, and if you look carefully, you’ll see a lot of 18th century graffiti, made by travelers on ‘The Grand Tour’ to Italy. It’s a detail of the image above.

Storm on the Nile

It may seem incredible, but huge storms in Egypt last fall led to all kinds of unusual problems. At the time, I was working on a Nile cruise boat and in the previous evening a terrific thunder and lightening rainstorm had hit. The boat leaked, but not from the bottom, from the roof. People woke up to find their bedding soaked. On the day I took this picture we had been heading to Luxor from Edfu and another storm was crossing our path. The captain decided to moor the ship to a palm tree near a tiny village. The kids were pretty excited about this turn of events. Eventually, everyone turned out to have a look and take a picture with their cell phones.

Triple Dipping

The medieval sculptor Barisano of Trani made bronze doors not only for the Trani cathedral (seen here), but he seemed to have re-used his molds for the same sets of figures for bronze doors in the cathedrals of Monreale in Sicily, and Ravello on the Amalfi coast. The detail here shows on the left one of the door’s bosses, a lion head (the mouth originally had a door ring) surrounded by birds. The panel to the right, seen also at Ravello and Monreale, is Saint Eustace, a pagan German who went out hunting with his dog and was going to kill a stag. But just before he shot, he saw a miraculous cross appear suspended between the stag’s antlers and was thereby converted to Christianity. Those who like their drink may recognize the motif in the label for the German liqueur, Jagermeister.

Egyptian Offerings

At the Mortuary Temple of Queen Hatshepsut (1507-1458 BCE) there are remarkably well-preserved frescoes reliefs showing offerings. The temple is located on the west bank of the Nile across from Luxor. Here, in an image I took about 3 months ago, you can make out the different kinds of offerings made for the funerary rites that took place here. At the bottom, two cows have been killed. Their feet are still tied together. If you look very carefully, you’ll see their throats have been cut and little dots of blood are coming out. Above them are birds, including geese, ducks, and even a heron. Above those are baskets, vases, and other containers of offerings. It’s as if they are being perpetually offered to the gods, or at least for the past 3500 years.