- Written by Alia Alidenes

Ancient art to modern revival to stereotype to appropriation:
Simone Legno’s Kittypatra (2014)

Too Cool for (Egyptology) School?

Despite an interest and appreciation for all history and archaeology, growing up I resented the dominance of ancient Egyptian history in media. A century on from the height of Egyptomania, it seemed like everyone was still obsessed. So naturally I wasn’t going be drawn in. I decided to give my attention to other cultures and periods…

Fast forward to 2022. I’ve almost completed a Bachelor of Archaeology at an institution renowned for its excavations in Egypt and its Ancient History department. My studies have given me brief encounters with Egypt, but have largely been focused elsewhere. So, when presented with the opportunity to contribute to the Mysteries Revisited exhibit, I was initially at a loss… until I realised that looking into the history of Egyptianising art and forgeries was actually the perfect opportunity. This was how I could try to understand why people in both the past and present have been drawn to ancient Egypt. It was also a chance to explore the endlessly interesting processes and psychology behind forgery, and its relationship to history today.

My journey of discovery and understanding has revolved around a few points on the topic I’d like to share. I hope that whatever your relationship with ancient Egypt has been, you find them as interesting and informative as I have.

A Market of Opportunity

Before diving into what ‘Egyptianisation vs Fakes’ actually means, let’s cover the basics. How did ancient Egypt become known to the modern West? Why was it such a source of inspiration and fascination to so many – then and still? What exactly was the extent of ‘Egyptomania’?

Answers to these questions can be found in display case 1 (‘Road to Rosetta’) and case 2 (‘Egyptomania’) of the Mysteries Revisited exhibition (on display until 30 March 2023).

From there we can start to think about Egyptianising art and the art of forgery. Interest in Egypt created a massive market for authentic Egyptian artefacts, counterfeit items, and products inspired by ancient Egypt. These were readily available to collectors, Egyptologists, and the rich and famous who could afford to travel to the source. But what about the public at home in Europe and America who had been enraptured by reports and illustrations of Egypt?

The New Neoclassical

For those unable to travel, both public and private enterprises brought ancient Egypt off the page into the domestic space through the arts. The terms ‘Egyptianising’ or ‘Egyptian Revival’ refers to decorative arts and architecture produced in the wake of Egyptomania. Egyptian forms and motifs were used to invoke the style of ancient Egyptian art and inscription across Europe and America. As a movement, it exploded around the turn of the 19th century with Napoleon’s campaigning and a boom in archaeological activity. It then experienced a resurgence after the discovery of the tomb of King Tutankhamun in 1922.

There are many examples of Egyptian Revival architecture on the monumental scale. For example, the hundreds of Egyptianising obelisks currently stand in cities all over the world. Also notable is the 1854 Crystal Palace Exposition in London that presented an ‘Egyptian Court’ of Egyptian building reproductions to the public.

In terms of commercial art, the English pottery Wedgwood quickly adopted and capitalised on the trend, offering a new collection of vessels and ornaments decorated with Egyptian motifs in the early 1800s. These stood in stark contrast to Josiah Wedgwood’s iconic, Neoclassical white figured Jasperware of previous decades. This was timely: not only was Egyptomania sweeping the West, but interest in Classical forms had already considerably declined. Many other potteries, jewellers, and designers also found their places in an expansive market.

And where there is money to be made in the arts, forgers will follow.

Wedgwood red stoneware teapot in Egyptian Revival style
c. 1810

Fake or Fortune?

As it turns out, ‘fake’ is a murky term. What exactly does it mean and why is it easily confused with replica? Or pastiche? Here are just some definitions adapted from the Getty Art & Architecture Thesaurus to help differentiate the terms associated with producing imitative works:

Forgeries/Fakes/Counterfeit Object

Reproductions of whole objects with the intention to deceive
Valued objects or documents that are altered with intent to deceive
Can range from whole works, to altering of signatures, or other deliberate misrepresentations.
Distinguished from copies or replicas by the intention of deception

Replica/Reproduction

Precise reproductions of valued objects, usually in the same scale as the original

Pastiche/Pastiche Copies

A borrowing of style, technique, or motifs from other works of art, yet not a direct copy of any work

Appropriation

The practice of borrowing pre-existing forms or images to form a new artwork

It’s all about intent. A fake – or more accurately a forgery – has the intention to deceive. For many forgers, money is the primary motivation. However, when compared to art forgery, archaeological forgeries often have more complex goals. Money and fame are certainly incentives, but many archaeological hoaxes and counterfeit objects have been created with an ideological agenda. This might be an attempt to ‘change’ history or influence religious thought. They may also have legal, political, ethnic, or linguistic precedents. It is important to note that forgery is not a modern phenomenon. It has been around as long as writing. There is evidence that since antiquity, forgeries have served historical and cultural purposes across civilisations.

Here is an interesting, short video on the history forgery and notable fake Egyptian statues from the perspective of an African historian. However, it doesn’t reference the ‘Bolton Amarna Princess’, one of the most notorious Egyptian forgeries in recent years. The statue was initially passed off as a depiction of one of the Pharoah Akhenaten’s daughters, and over 3000 years old. The master forger who created the statue has since served time in prison. Read more about Shaun Greenhalgh’s forgery here.

There is no question that forgeries are problematic and damaging. But they can also be a force of progress and a source of history themselves. In Art: Authenticity, Restoration, Forgery, art historian and conservator David A. Scott tells us that “Forgeries of Egyptian art have been very influential in spreading the appreciation of ancient Egyptian civilization to a wide audience”. And if the accessibility of forgeries contributed to the popularisation of Egyptian history, it also helped inspire generations of Egyptologists. In turn, these specialists have progressed the field of authentication to combat forgeries.

You may not know that Macquarie University has a project funded by the Australian Research Council on this very subject. Since 2016, ‘Forging Antiquity: Authenticity, forgery and fake papyri’ has worked on creating a typology of forged Coptic papyri and authentication techniques to assist scholars and collectors. In use from c. 300 CE to the Islamic conquest, Coptic used the Greek alphabet to represent the Late Egyptian language. The project has also examined the history of forgery, its cultural context, and the effect of forgery both in both academia and the public sphere. In a conversation with Professor Malcom Choat, Head of the Department of History and Archaeology and chief investigator, I asked what the most salient point of the project was. His response was that forgeries are dynamic. They may have many intentions, but they also live complicated afterlives in the shaping of authentication, academic discourse, and public perception of the past. Read more about Forging Antiquity here.

References

‘About’ Markers of Authenticity. Accessed 19/10/22. https://markersofauthenticity.com/about/

‘Art & Architecture Thesaurus® Online.’ The Getty Research Institute. Accessed 18/10/22. https://www.getty.edu/research/tools/vocabularies/aat/

‘FAKES, FORGERIES, REPRODUCTIONS.’ Rethinking Pitt-Rivers. Accessed 19/10/22. https://web.prm.ox.ac.uk/rpr/index.php/article-index/12-articles/528-fakes.html

‘MONUMENTS AND MUMMIES: THE EGYPTIAN REVIVAL STYLE.’ M.S. Rau. Accessed 18/10/22. https://rauantiques.com/blogs/canvases-carats-and-curiosities/monuments-and-mummies-the-egyptian-revival-style

‘Rosso Antico sugar bowl by Josiah Wedgwood & Sons.’ Powerhouse Collection. Accessed 18/10/22. https://collection.maas.museum/object/120135

‘Wedgwood Egyptian Revival Black Basalt and Rosso Antico Incense Burner.’ Bardith, Ltd. Antique Ceramics. Accessed 18/10/22. https://bardith.com/product/wedgwood-egyptian-revival-black-basalt-and-rosso-antico-incense-burner/

Choat, Malcom. ‘Forgery, (de)authentication, and modes of expertise.’ Markers of Authenticity. Accessed 19/10/22. https://markersofauthenticity.com/2018/03/27/forgery-deauthentication-and-modes-of-expertise/

Grafton, Anthony. Forgers and Critics: Creativity and Duplicity in Western Scholarship. Princeton: Collins & Brown, 1990.

Hardwick, T. ‘‘The sophisticated answer’: a recent display of forgeries held at the Victoria and Albert Museum,’ The Burlington Magazine 152.1287 (2010): 406-408.

Scott, David A. Art: Authenticity, Restoration, Forgery. Los Angeles: Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press, 2016.

Steindorff, George and Gertrude Rosenthal. ‘Fakes and Fates of Egyptian Antiquities: A Supplement to the Catalogue of Egyptian Sculpture,’ The Journal of the Walters Art Gallery 10 (1947): 52-59.

About the Author

Alia Alidenes is a final year Bachelor of Archaeology student majoring in Modern history. Her academic interests are the consumption of history, luxury commodities in world history from Late Antiquity to the Early Modern period, as well as textile history. Her personal interests include fibre arts and watching sumo. After establishing a career as a certified sake expert, she hopes to apply her love for communicating specialist knowledge to the museum sector next and work with collections.

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