Taking the significant Faro Convention on the Value of Cultural Heritage for Society (Council of Europe 2005) as its starting point; this book presents pragmatic views on the rise of the local and the everyday within cultural heritage discourse. Bringing together a range of case studies within a broad geographic context; it examines ways in which authorised or expert views of heritage can be challenged; and recognises how everyone has expertise in familiarity with their local environment. The book concludes that local agenda and everyday places matter; and examines how a realignment of heritage practice to accommodate such things could usefully contribute to more inclusive and socially relevant cultural agenda.
2016-02-16 2016-02-16File Name: B01BUN2K8U
Review
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. A Biography of an Important Egyptian SculptureBy Rob HardyThink about the art of ancient Egypt. What your mindrsquo;s eye might see are flat figures in strict profile or eyes forward; or gigantic statues; or humans with the heads of jackals or birds. These formulaic representations are the rule; but there are exceptions that show real likenesses. The sculpture known as the Boston Green Head is one of the exceptions; and it has a pride of place within the Egyptian holdings of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Now in a beautiful book issued by the museum itself; the sculpture gets a full biography. _The Priest; the Prince; and the Pasha: The Life and Afterlife of an Ancient Egyptian Sculpture_ (MFA Publications) is written by the curator of such Egyptian treasures at the museum; Lawrence M. Berman; and it is beautifully illustrated with pictures of the sculpture itself; similar sculptures; other art from Ancient Egypt; the consecutive owners of the sculpture and their friends; and the places it has been housed. It is a delightful and surprising in-depth look at an important work of art.The sculpture is small; a little more than four inches tall. It depicts the head of a bald man with thin lips and sad eyes. He has wrinkles on his brow; and crowrsquo;s feet. He has a shaved head; which is a giveaway to his identity: ldquo;Handed down through the centuries;rdquo; writes Berman; ldquo;from Roman wall paintings and statues of priests of Isis to Hollywood movies; the white-robed shaven-headed Egyptian priest is a familiar character.rdquo; The nose is broken; but all the rest of the details of the head are present and are striking. The sculpture was discovered by the French Egyptologist Franccedil;ois Auguste Ferdinand Mariette; who was sent to Egypt in 1850 to visit Coptic monasteries to inventory and record their manuscripts. This was not what he really wanted to do; as he was more interested in ancient Egypt; and so he was easily distracted from his ostensible assignment to go on real digs. By the time Mariette left for France; he had sent some 6;000 objects to the Louvre; One of Mariettersquo;s tasks was to prepare for the visit to Egypt of Prince Napoleacute;on Joseph Charles Paul Bonaparte; Napoleacute;onrsquo;s nephew; the visit never got made; but the prince did receive some of the finds shipped back to Paris; including the Green Head. He eventually sold it; but no one knows what happened to it until it came into the hands of the eccentric American collector Edward Perry Warren; who had set up a monastic; all-male enclosure; Lewes House in East Sussex; England. He donated the Green Head; and many other artworks; to the Museum of Fine Arts. It now resides in the Late Period Gallery of the museum; and it stands out among the other exhibits: ldquo;Even today; most viewersrsquo; first reaction to the Green Head is that it does not look Egyptian.rdquo;Bermanrsquo;s book is not of expansive size; but is full of beautiful photographs of people; places; and artwork. It is a wide-ranging story of passionate explorers and collectors. It is a full appreciation of the beauty and history of the one sculpture; with interesting light shed on the ldquo;true artrdquo; versus the ldquo;prescribed artrdquo; of Egypt; and how the two were regarded by moderns as the digging continued. As an example of ldquo;true art;rdquo; the Green Head allows us to see a neglected sophistication of an ancient culture more famous for conventional and repetitious displays.
