Introduction with Jeffrey Spier, Getty Curator
Transcript
[Ancient Greek lyre, frame drum and finger cymbals play in the background]
Female Narrator: Welcome to “Beyond the Nile: Egypt and the Classical World.” We often think of Ancient Egypt, Classical Greece and the Roman Empire as discrete and separate civilizations, but the ancient world was more fluid than we’ve been led to believe. This exhibition looks at the cultural and artistic connections between Greece, Rome and Egypt over a very long period of time – from the Bronze Age, just before 2000 BC, up until the Roman Empire. Here’s Jeffrey Spier.
Jeffrey Spier: I’m Jeffrey Spier. I'm the senior curator of Antiquities at the Getty Museum and the lead curator on this exhibition.
Female Narrator: The exhibition is divided into four chronological periods.
Jeffrey Spier: The first section talks about the earliest contacts between Egypt, the Aegean islands, with the island of Crete especially, and then Mainland Greece.
Female Narrator: Cultures met through trade, diplomatic and military missions. Most of the travel was from Greece to Egypt, but the transfer of artistic styles, tools and techniques went both ways, as we see in the second part of the show.
[Ancient lyre fades out]
Jeffrey Spier: In this section we're seeing very much the influence of Egypt on the Greeks. Before around 600 BC, there was no stone sculpture in Greece, but they see these sculptures and monuments in Egypt and begin to copy them.
Female Narrator: Egypt was becoming a cultural melting pot. People spoke multiple languages. Egyptians borrowed ideas from Greek artists, Greeks innovated on ancient Egyptian styles and themes. The third section represents Egypt under Greek rule, and the final section traces connections between Rome, Greece and Egypt under the Romans beginning in 30 B.C.
[Ancient lyre returns]
Jeffrey Spier: Rome may have conquered Egypt, but it's Egyptian civilization and culture that really fascinated the Romans. Roman Pompeii and Herculaneum were just full of Egyptian images: images of the Nile, of pygmies and crocodiles and hippos, statues of gods and goddesses like Isis and Serapis and Anubis.
Female Narrator: Move into the first gallery now, which explores the Bronze Age.
[Ancient lyre fades out]