Tutankhamun - Treasures of the Golden Pharaoh review: Wonderful collection deserves all the sensationalism

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Melanie McDonagh4 November 2019

The billing for this exhibition — Treasures of the Golden Pharaoh — sounds like a Tintin book, but for once, the sensationalism is right. It is a selection of treasures from the tomb of the boy king that Howard Carter excavated in 1922. To be more exact, it’s 150 out of the 5,300-odd pieces that Carter discovered.

Actually, another title of the show is the Centennial Exhibition, but that’s premature; the centenary will be when the international tour of the artefacts is completed. One reason for the hoo-ha, quite apart from the mild hysteria that overtakes us whenever Tutankhamun is mentioned, is that this is meant to be the last time these artefacts go on display outside Egypt. In future they’ll be brought together in the new museum that’s to be built outside Cairo, so unless you want to go there, head for Sloane Square instead.

Poor Tutankhamun, with his club foot and early death; he was far less famous than his father Akhenaten, who sensationally embraced monotheism. Imagine what marvels went to the underworld with the great Pharaohs. But it’s Tut we remember: his tomb, unlike theirs, wasn’t (seriously) raided, and it was found.

The world of the dead in Egypt — the notion that at death the soul began a journey full of challenges — is utterly remote from us, but these artefacts are a way of entering into it.

The boat models that would miraculously grow large and functional in the underworld, the cases that contained meat for the journey in the shape of actual joints, the bows and boomerangs, the umpteen amulets: all convey the reality that death was a matter requiring preparation for meeting the guardians of the underworld.

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But there are pieces here that are interestingly naturalistic — a development from the reign of Tut’s father. A little squatting figure for a chain is charming. We see the boy king on a skiff with a harpoon, or surmounting a wonderfully lithe panther, or striding forward on sandals much larger than his feet, showing his boy-breasts and tummy.

There’s a reminder of his youth when he came to the throne at the age of nine, in the tiny chair, with a footstool made of the ebony and ivory of conquered lands under his feet. To keep him amused in the afterlife there’s a little senet set, a boardgame.

There’s much to marvel at here, but the busy visual and aural backdrop gets in the way. Do we need Egyptian-style music on a loop? It suggests a want of confidence in the exhibits.

Alongside the artefacts, there’s the story of their finding. Wonderful things, Carter told his sponsor Lord Carnarvon as they first peered into the burial chamber. And from the selection of pieces here you have to agree. Wonderful things indeed.

Until May 3, 2020 (0844 844 0444, saatchigallery.com)

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