Word: egyptians
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...into mosque lamps. The most impressive single work of sculpture in the show, the 11th century Pisa griffin, is so hybrid that without a context, scholars seem unable to decide where it comes from -- or even whether it is from al-Andalus at all. It may equally well be Egyptian, North African or Iranian, though the Pisans themselves (who installed it on the facade of their cathedral) believed it was war booty from their conquest of Majorca, once an Arab fiefdom. Severely holed by bullets in the 19th century, it remains an overwhelmingly authoritative image -- rigid, swollen, and yet almost...
...ancient Egyptian tomb of Nefertari is gloriously restored...
Nefertari's tomb, lost for three millenniums, was discovered in 1904. Its treasures had been looted, probably in antiquity, and its wall paintings had deteriorated. By 1940, in fact, the decay had become so severe that Egyptian authorities closed the tomb to the public. It seemed to have become yet another endangered landmark of ancient Egyptian civilization. But in 1986 the Egyptian Antiquities Organization and the Getty Conservation Institute of Santa Monica, Calif., embarked on a $4 million restoration project. The dramatic results were unveiled last week. Although access to the tomb will be limited for two years to scientists...
...work was carried out under the supervision of the Getty's director, Miguel Angel Corzo, a Spaniard. When he began six years ago, he faced a formidable task. Paint was flaking and chunks of plaster were detached from the limestone walls. Insects nested in corners. Egyptian officials had glued large squares of cloth to the walls to prevent them from collapsing and had suspended a net to catch portions of falling ceiling plaster...
Corzo brought in a celebrated Italian husband-and-wife team of art restorers, Paolo and Laura Mora, who led six Italian and four Egyptian conservators in a year-long emergency campaign. They applied 10,000 strips of Japanese mulberry-bark paper to the walls and ceilings like Band-Aids, to keep plaster from crumbling and paint from flaking. Then began the painstaking work of restoration. The conservators swabbed every square inch of the tomb with distilled water, gently removing the accumulation of 3,000 years of dust and soot. In some areas, they chiseled the layers of plaster and paint...