Fictional Realms: Ancient Egypt in the Renaissance and Baroque Imagination

Renaissance and Baroque artists often looked to ancient Egypt for inspiration. But their knowledge of Pharaonic civilisation was almost entirely based on the Biblical narratives and on the information about Egypt preserved by the pens of Classical authors – many of whom often had distinctly anti-Egyptian viewpoints.

This course will explore how this imaginary ancient Egypt was expressed by Renaissance and Baroque artists, as well as writers of the 16th and 17th centuries. To do so, it will explore how ancient Greek and Roman writers understood ancient Egyptian culture, and how they explained it to their own audiences, exploring how they created an entirely fictional “Ancient Egypt” which laid the foundations for the role which Egypt played in the imaginations of later European scholars. The ultimate expression of the “orient” and the perfect foil for what they perceived as Western civilisation.

1. Of Flying Snakes, Tyrannical Pharaohs and a World Turned Upside Down: Ancient Egypt in Classical Sources
   This lecture will discuss the ways in which Greek historians engaged with ancient Egypt, in particular Herodotus, and how the cliches and tropes created by the Greeks were adapted by the Romans in light of the changing political circumstances in their own relationship with Egypt.
2. The Great Temptress: Cleopatra in Classical, Medieval and Renaissance Sources
   Among the most popular figures in Renaissance and Baroque art, the Egyptian Queen was depicted and studied largely through Roman sources which did not paint her in a particularly positive light. This lecture will investigate the reception of Cleopatra in art and literature and investigate how stereotypical depictions of the Queen still persist in modern culture.
3. The Finding of Moses and the Granaries of Joseph: Egypt in Religious Art of the Renaissance and Baroque
   A number of Biblical stories are set in ancient Egypt, and these scenes were commonly depicted by European artists in religious contexts. But how did these artists depict a civilisation about which they had no real information? This lecture will look at the changing ways in which Renaissance and Baroque artists engaged with Egypt as a Biblical setting. It will also explore the odd tendency for papal families to trace their ancestry back to ancient Egyptian gods!
4. Filling in the Blanks: Egypt in 18th Century Art
   This lecture will build on the previous three lectures to highlight how the increase in European contact with modern Egypt from the mid-18th century (exemplified for instance by the travels of Norden and other explorers) caused a shift in the depiction of ancient Egypt in contemporary art and culture, a shift which drew to a greater extent on “local colour” but which still remained largely a fictional construct emphasising the supposed spiritual and arcane elements of ancient Egyptian culture.

    

   Join Dr Nicky Nielsen for this set of 4 lectures that will chart the evolution of this fantasy Egypt as we consider the lasting impression this has made, even into modern times.