Some have the glittering gold masks from which the exhibition takes its name. Instead of the thin bandaged limbs horror films have told us to expect, ready to raise a dead arm as they awaken, they’re sealed in a sculptured shape.
In Egyptian mythology the first mummy was the god Osiris, killed and chopped up by his brother Seth then resurrected by his wife Isis who gathered the pieces and bound them together. It was the human form become divine: a god-like vessel in which to walk in eternity with the gods. In the minds of the ancient Egyptians, a mummy was not a preserved body. They are laid reverently on velvet beds, lit to bring out their bright gold decorations, surrounded by plenty of dark empty space in the generous new exhibition hall. The mummies in this exhibition, all from this museum’s fine collections, all tightly wrapped like babies in swaddling bands, are presented in a way intended to make you think again about what these ancient Egyptian artefacts actually are. The coffin has a gilded face and a tripartite wig, painted blue. The coffin is in a shape known as ‘anthropoid’ or ‘mummiform’, representing the deceased in a transfigured, god-like form.
