Pharaoh
In collaboration with the British Museum, the National Gallery of Victoria presents the Melbourne Winter Masterpieces® 2024 exhibition Pharaoh. Bringing together more than five hundred works – including monumental sculpture, architecture, temple statuary, jewellery, papyri, coffins and an array of funerary objects – this landmark exhibition celebrates three thousand years of art and culture. At once high priest, head of Egypt’s royal family and leader of the army, pharaohs were responsible for protecting and ruling over both Upper and Lower Egypt from the First Dynasty, c.3000 BCE, until the Roman conquest in 30 BCE. Pharaohs claimed divine origin and were represented as invincible warriors and the gods’ devout intermediaries on Earth, but the antiquities that comprise the exhibition reveal the truths behind this idealised phenomenon. Seven thematic sections organise the exhibition’s exploration of the realities, mythologies and iconographies pertaining to the roles and duties of these all-powerful kings. Pharaoh runs from June 14 to October 6, 2024.
