Thomas Tiernan
Extra Credit
Rosicrucian Egyptian
Museum
Egyptian
art from the Ancient Mediterranean Worlds has always interested me from the
start. The Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum is located on the outskirts of downtown
San Jose. They have an auditorium, a museum, and a pretty garden. The buildings
are architecturally designed to look Egyptian, which added a nice mood to the
environment. The museum had hundreds of artifacts most of which was real, but
some were copies. The most interesting part about the museum was how they had
real mummified Egyptians and animals on display. One of the mummies on display
was the Mummy of Nesimin. The man who was mummified was a semi-priest and
scribe named Nesimin. The patterns painted on Neisimin’s wrappings replicated
the bead nets that were wrapped around mummies in earlier years. The coffin the
body was in was X rayed so one can see the actual skeleton inside the coffin.
The facial mask was impressively made out of gold but no semiprecious stones.
Special
ornaments were used not only to benefit the living, but were used to protect
the body during their journey to the after life. Egyptians believe strongly in
the after life and they bury themselves with all of their treasures, in order
to have those treasures in the after life. The ornaments and amulets had
beautiful paintings of birds and gods. The large amulets were made of
cartonnage which is linen mixed with plaster.
A painting
I also saw at the museum was an actual painting, which was discovered in the
ruins of a sculptor’s workshop in Akhenaten, Egypt. I did not see many
paintings but out of the all the paintings I saw, this one was preserved the
best. The painting is called “The Love Idol” and it is a famous limestone bust
of Nefertiti by a famous Egyptian artist, Thutmosis. Nefertiti was the queen of
the Pharaoh Akhenaten and is very important in Egyptian history.
Last, I
took a picture of a Heart Scarab Amulet. It was very small, but was the best
looking amulet of the group. The Scarab amulet was meant to ensure passage to
the afterlife. The amulet looked very similar to an actual Scarab insect, because
Egyptians were very astute observers of nature. The details in the wings of the
amulet were amazing and the turquoise color of the amulet brought the piece to
life.
I really
enjoyed learning more about Egyptian art, and I suggest many people to visit
this museum. Included are pictures I took from the museum and a bonus picture of
mummified baboon.
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