Strata

“Quest for Immortality” Opens in Washington, D.C.

Egypt Exhibit Dwarfs King Tut

Bible aficionados will undoubtedly join the crowds flocking to see the largest traveling exhibition of ancient Egyptian objects ever to reach these shores. The Quest for Immortality: Treasures of Ancient Egypt, which debuted in June at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., features 115 objects (twice as many as were in the last major exhibit from Egypt, Treasures of Tutankhamun, in 1976–80), along with a life-sized reconstruction of the elaborately painted burial chamber of Thutmose III (1479–1425 B.C.). The show examines ancient Egyptian religious beliefs and practices regarding life after death, offering an exquisite array of funerary masks and portraits, finely wrought jewelry, furniture, human-shaped coffin lids and more, all from the tombs of Egyptian monarchs and aristocrats, focusing particularly on the New Kingdom (1550–1069 B.C.) through the Late Period (664–332 B.C.).