There is a subtle aspect of the exhibition’s title “Ramses and the Gold of the Pharaohs,” which opens Friday, April 7, at the Grande Halle de la Villette in Paris. Why just “Ramses” and not “Ramses II,” the royal star of the event? “Eternity has a name, it’s Ramses,” replied Bénédicte Lhoyer, scientific adviser of the exhibition. In the New Kingdom, she continued “Ramses II set the absolute standard for subsequent rulers,” many of whom took his name, since there are eleven Ramses in the long list of pharaohs of ancient Egypt.
Born around 1305 BC and died around 1213 BC, Ramses II is THE pharaoh, the one with the most records: the longest reign (67 years), a hundred children, a string of monuments. Also the pharaoh of fantasy. The Greeks made him a legend by superimposing his figure on those of Sesostris I and III, two great rulers of the Middle Kingdom. Hollywood, in the Ten Commandments, made him the pharaoh of the Exodus. And in 1976, France received his mummy with the honors due to an alive head of state. It’s clear that the name of Ramses has over time acquired quasi-mythical connotation, that the character has become an archetype, and that the number is unnecessary. Ramses, in short, says it all.
Minimalist narrative
The narrative to the exhibition is also deliberately minimalist. The experience checks off all the boxes the public expects to see at an event of this kind. First, the warrior king, with the re-enactment of the battle of Qadesh (circa 1274 BC) once morest the Hittites, which ended in a sort of draw but which Ramses II, as a gifted propagandist, transformed into a total success by the tale he told. The king as an intercessor between gods and men, responsible for the balance of the world. The king as a builder is evoked through large photographic panels with, for example, the temple of Abu Simbel. Finally, the king’s tomb, symbolizing his passage to the next world.
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The emphasis is not on scholarly explanations, as if these were not necessary. The works, all from Egypt – some never seen in France – speak for themselves. They don’t need to be majestic to carry the message that they convey to us over the millennia regarding ancient Egyptian civilization.
You need only look at the brightly colored tiles showing captured enemies that decorated Ramses’ palaces to see stereotypical representations of foreign peoples. Levantines wearing a long, pointed beard and a hat with a band, Nubians’ dark skin and short hair and Libyans wearing headdresses that slopes backward. Another evocative and surprising piece is a statue in anthracite schist, which shows a humble Ramses II on all fours, almost prostrate, sliding an offering to a god.
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