‘AGE OF THE PTOLEMIES’ : Brooklyn Museum Puts Together an Impressive Cleopatra Exhibit

The name Cleopatra is probably the most recognizable among all the rulers of ancient Egypt. Her story has been told on stage by Shakespeare and Shaw, and she has been immortalized on the screen by Theda Bara, Claudette Colbert, Vivien Leigh and Elizabeth Taylor.

Now the Brooklyn Museum is running a knockout exhibition, “Cleopatra’s Egypt: Age of the Ptolemies,” which runs through Jan. 2, then travels to the Detroit Institute of Arts and on to Munich, Germany.

Drawing on its own extensive holdings and borrowing from 40 other U.S. and European museums, the Vatican and private collections, the Brooklyn Museum has assembled 165 sculptures, ceramics, jewelry, coins and papyrus manuscripts produced in the Ptolemaic period, 305 BC to 30 BC.

Cleopatra was the last of 10 generations of Macedonian Greek rulers of Egypt, descended from Ptolemy. The dynasty was noted for strong women, several of whom ruled in their own right.

Cleopatra was actually Cleopatra VI, and her claim to the throne was supported by Julius Caesar. She soon eliminated her co-ruler brother, Ptolemy XIV, had a son by Caesar, married Marc Antony with whom she hoped to rule the Roman Empire, and committed suicide when Antony was defeated by Caesar’s nephew, Octavian.

Although she was reputed to be a sexy beauty, two marble Roman-style busts and coins bearing her profile suggest that she had a plain but strong face. History tells us that she was an astute, manipulative ruler and that she was the first of her family in 300 years of rule to read and write Egyptian hieroglyphics.

The Ptolemies lived apart from mainstream Egypt in their own capital, Alexandria, following Greek rather than Egyptian customs and culture.

Ptolemaic rulers allowed themselves to become nominal pontiffs of the Egyptian religion, which required Pharaohs--who were often deified after death--to maintain the nation’s temples as the earthly abodes of the gods.

At least one Ptolemaic queen, Arsinoe II, was deified in her lifetime, and there is a statuette of her in the exhibit.

Arsinoe is portrayed in rigid Egyptian style, left foot forward, that had dominated sculpture for 3,000 years, but she does carry a cornucopia, a Greek symbol of plenty. Almost all the sculptural depictions of the Pharaohs created for temple use adhere to strict principles of Egyptian art.

If there is anything proved by this exhibition, it is that classic Greek artistic traditions had less influence on Egyptian art than previously believed, but Egyptian artistic traditions were popular with the Romans.

Of the dozen galleries devoted to the show, one contains interpretations by Roman sculptors of Egyptian motifs, notably a handsome red marble statue of Emperor Hadrian’s lover, Antinous, and a red granite bust of an angry Emperor Caracalla.

Works on display use white limestone and marble, buff sandstone, gray and red granite, black basalt, green diorite and serpentine. Presentation and lighting is ideal, but the wall cards for each exhibit do not provide enough cultural information.

The show includes a lovely, sensitive portrait bust of a young priest with a shaved head named Wesir-wer whose facial features resemble Florence Griffith Joyner’s, America’s Olympic track and field medalist.

Other highlights are a fierce sculpture of the falcon god Horus protecting a tiny Ptolemy Nectanebo II between his talons, a rare carved limestone window grill from the Ptolemaic temple of Dendura, a splendidly drawn Book of the Dead scroll and a gilded mummy bust of a Ptolemaic lady.

Cleopatra’s tomb has never been found and none of her legendary jewels, including her grape-size pearls, have surfaced. But the exhibition does feature some of the type of adornments she favored--gold rings and bracelets and necklaces in intricate patterns, often with animal designs.