{"id":50,"date":"2014-02-01T05:31:00","date_gmt":"2014-02-01T05:31:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/yvonneseale.org\/uncategorized\/coptic-textiles-hyde\/"},"modified":"2015-08-19T14:37:51","modified_gmt":"2015-08-19T14:37:51","slug":"coptic-textiles-hyde","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yvonneseale.org\/blog\/2014\/02\/01\/coptic-textiles-hyde\/","title":{"rendered":"“Coptic Textiles” at the Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin"},"content":{"rendered":"

Being from Ireland, I’m pretty used to heading into a museum and seeing artefacts which have been preserved in the acidic, anaerobic environment of an Irish bog. The items in the newest display at the Douglas Hyde Gallery, however, were preserved in very different conditions: the dry desert climate of Egypt.<\/p>\n

The “Coptic Textiles” exhibition is tucked into a small corner of this small gallery, which is itself tucked into the side of the Nassau Street entrance of Trinity College. It includes a number of pieces made between the 5th and 11th century.<\/p>\n

They are a vivid illustration of the kinds of cross-cultural contacts which existed in medieval Egypt. As well as the indigenous Egyptian and Romano-Egyptian motifs, there are distinct hints of Byzantine or Islamic artistic influence. Some of them are tiny fragments; others, like the example I’ve included here to the left, are largely intact. This one\u2014showing a cavalryman or maybe a saint\u2014is some sort of medallion which I imagine must once have been affixed to clothing.<\/p>\n

I do have to talk in terms of hints or possibilities, though, because the puzzling omission from this exhibition was the almost complete lack of interpretive material. I understand that pieces can have shaky provenances or can be difficult to date precisely, but there was no explanation as to the individual pieces\u2014no illustrating maps, nothing about manufacturing techniques, no explanation even as to how the exhibition was arranged. I thought I detected clusters of motifs or techniques, like several small, vibrant pieces which seemed to show humanoid monsters with exaggerated male genitalia, but it was difficult to understand them without context. Overall, “Coptic Textiles” is no doubt fascinating for those who are interested more in the aesthetic qualities of textiles, but a little frustrating for those of us who would like to learn more about the textiles’ history.<\/p>\n

The exhibition runs at the Douglas Hyde Gallery<\/a> from now until 19 March.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Being from Ireland, I’m pretty used to heading into a museum and seeing artefacts which have been preserved in the acidic, anaerobic environment of an …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":296,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-50","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-museums-exhibitions"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3124,"url":"https:\/\/yvonneseale.org\/blog\/2023\/01\/22\/striking-power\/","url_meta":{"origin":50,"position":0},"title":"“Striking Power: Iconoclasm in Ancient Egypt” at MAG","author":"admin","date":"January 22, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Why do people feel moved to damage a piece of art? This is one of the main questions which the exhibition \"Striking Power: Iconoclasm in Ancient Egypt\"\u2014now on at the Memorial Art Gallery, Rochester\u2014tries to answer through the three dozen or so statues and reliefs it brings together. Some of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Museums & Exhibitions"","block_context":{"text":"Museums & Exhibitions","link":"https:\/\/yvonneseale.org\/blog\/category\/museums-exhibitions\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/yvonneseale.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/IMG_6939.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/yvonneseale.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/IMG_6939.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/yvonneseale.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/IMG_6939.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/yvonneseale.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/IMG_6939.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/yvonneseale.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/IMG_6939.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/yvonneseale.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/IMG_6939.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3183,"url":"https:\/\/yvonneseale.org\/blog\/2023\/06\/19\/expeditions-degypte-at-royal-museums-of-art-history-brussels\/","url_meta":{"origin":50,"position":1},"title":"“Exp\u00e9ditions d’\u00c9gypte” at Royal Museums of Art & History, Brussels","author":"admin","date":"June 19, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"There's another universe out there where instead of becoming a medieval historian, I pursued my childhood fascination with ancient Egypt instead\u2014I was that kid who tried to teach themselves how to write in hieroglyphs from a library book\u2014so I made a beeline for the \"Exp\u00e9ditions d'\u00c9gypte\" special exhibition on a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Museums & Exhibitions"","block_context":{"text":"Museums & Exhibitions","link":"https:\/\/yvonneseale.org\/blog\/category\/museums-exhibitions\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Photographs and collages printed on cloth hangings.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/yvonneseale.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/IMG_9308-scaled.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/yvonneseale.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/IMG_9308-scaled.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/yvonneseale.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/IMG_9308-scaled.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/yvonneseale.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/IMG_9308-scaled.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/yvonneseale.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/IMG_9308-scaled.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/yvonneseale.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/IMG_9308-scaled.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":643,"url":"https:\/\/yvonneseale.org\/blog\/2016\/02\/17\/exploring-a-legacy\/","url_meta":{"origin":50,"position":2},"title":"The Space Age and the Digital Age: Linking Museum Exhibits and the College Classroom","author":"admin","date":"February 17, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"When I first came to the University of Iowa, the north lobby of the Main Library was a drab, dated, and draughty area that had little sense of identity or purpose. 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There\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Museums & Exhibitions"","block_context":{"text":"Museums & Exhibitions","link":"https:\/\/yvonneseale.org\/blog\/category\/museums-exhibitions\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/yvonneseale.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/27503357_2036092956675583_3167581601138644189_o.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/yvonneseale.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/27503357_2036092956675583_3167581601138644189_o.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/yvonneseale.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/27503357_2036092956675583_3167581601138644189_o.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/yvonneseale.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/27503357_2036092956675583_3167581601138644189_o.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/yvonneseale.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/27503357_2036092956675583_3167581601138644189_o.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/yvonneseale.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/27503357_2036092956675583_3167581601138644189_o.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2239,"url":"https:\/\/yvonneseale.org\/blog\/2019\/10\/28\/colmar-treasure\/","url_meta":{"origin":50,"position":4},"title":"The Bride of Frankenstein and the Colmar Treasure","author":"admin","date":"October 28, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Visiting the Cloisters Museum always makes me think vaguely of the Bride of Frankenstein: beautiful but cobbled together from parts of many different bodies. The museum was constructed in the 1930s from the remains of a number of French and Spanish monasteries which were dismantled, shipped across the Atlantic, and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Museums & Exhibitions"","block_context":{"text":"Museums & Exhibitions","link":"https:\/\/yvonneseale.org\/blog\/category\/museums-exhibitions\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/yvonneseale.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Photo-28-09-2019-12-51-59-e1570390987789.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/yvonneseale.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Photo-28-09-2019-12-51-59-e1570390987789.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/yvonneseale.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Photo-28-09-2019-12-51-59-e1570390987789.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/yvonneseale.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Photo-28-09-2019-12-51-59-e1570390987789.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/yvonneseale.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Photo-28-09-2019-12-51-59-e1570390987789.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/yvonneseale.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Photo-28-09-2019-12-51-59-e1570390987789.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":52,"url":"https:\/\/yvonneseale.org\/blog\/2013\/09\/29\/lumieres-de-la-sagesse-exhibition-musee-de-linstitut-du-monde-arabe\/","url_meta":{"origin":50,"position":5},"title":"“Lumi\u00e8res de la sagesse” Exhibition – Mus\u00e9e de l’Institut du Monde Arabe","author":"Yvonne Seale","date":"September 29, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"This Saturday I paid a visit to a new exhibition at the Mus\u00e9e de l'Institut du Monde Arabe, called \"Lumi\u00e8res de la sagesse - \u00c9coles m\u00e9di\u00e9vales d'Orient et d'Occident,\" which runs from now through to January 5th, 2014. 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