One thing about Egyptian art that many people do not realize is that it once used to be very colorful! However, while time has preserved the beautiful ๐ค carvingsย and inscriptionsย ๐๐๐ฅ, the paintย ๐จ๐๐ ฑ๐ญ๐ธ๐ฆย on a lot of Egyptian art has been lost. This project at the MET, which features a projection of colors on to the Temple of Dendur shows what the templeย ๐๐๐ย might have looked like when it was commissioned to be built by the Emperor Augustusย ๐๐ป๐. By 10 B.C.E, the templeย ๐๐๐ constructionย was completed.ย
Usually when trying to recreate colors on past artifacts, a combination of techniques are used such as researching other similar objects (looking at the colors used at the Temple of Hathor at Dendera and the Temple of Isis at Philae), or using scientific techniques such as checking for remnants of color/paintย ๐จ๐๐ ฑ๐ญ๐ธ๐ฆย using various instruments. No traces of paintย ๐จ๐๐ ฑ๐ญ๐ธ๐ฆย were found on the Temple of Dendur, so looking at the paintย ๐จ๐๐ ฑ๐ญ๐ธ๐ฆย used on other similar templesย ๐๐๐๐ฅย was how the colors were inferred for this particular relief.ย
The relief that the artists chose to recreate the color of the templeย ๐๐๐ย with shows the Emperor Augustus ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐๐๐๐๐ making offerings ๐ต๐๐ช๐๐๐ฆ of wine to the Egyptian gods ๐น๐น๐นย Horusย ๐ ๐ญย and Hathorย ๐ก!ย The pictures above show the progression of the colorization of the temple! This is created by using a projector to put the colors on the actual temple reliefs!
Fun fact because I canโt help myself: In this image ๐๐ ฑ๐ you can see two ๐ป (of Augustusโ three ๐ผ) cartouches! I loved seeing these in color on the projection too!!
๐ฟ๐ฒ๐๐๐๐๐ Augustus (Autokrator)
๐๐๐๐๐๐น๐ Augustus (Kaisaros)
The projection on the temple ๐๐๐ happens in phases, so people can see the color start to come together and thatโs what I tried to show in my photographs ๐๐ ฑ๐๐ช!! I hope you enjoy this unique look at the Temple of Dendur – let me know what you think about it!