Oriental Institute exhibit shows seeing isn’t always believing | UChicago News
The way people think about life in the ancient Middle East is largely based on the pictures, paintings and images they see in books and museums. But in many cases, the preconceptions or limited knowledge of the people creating the images may result in representations that may be more illusionary than real, shows a new exhibition at the Oriental Institute Museum.
The exhibition, “Picturing the Past,” explores how architecture, sites and artifacts of the ancient Middle East have been visually documented, and evaluates the accuracy and function of the different types of images.
The exhibition demonstrates how artists, for example, have given Egyptian queen Nefrititi a beauty makeover. It also explains how scholars were led to believe there was a mother goddess cult in ancient Mesopotamia, based on the reconstruction of a woman’s statue that includes a small figure of a child that was probably never there.
The exhibit includes 40 examples of facsimiles, photos, architectural reconstructions, casts, models, impressionistic paintings and computer-aided reconstructions as a basis for examining the influence that these images have had on our perception of the ancient world.
Jack Green, museum chief curator and exhibit co-curator said, “People often accept reconstructed images of ancient buildings and scenes of daily life as being completely accurate, but seeing is not necessarily believing. The commonly held expectation is that such renderings are based on hard scientific facts. But much of what makes up the final image may be informed guesswork. The objects in the exhibit allow us explore the relationship between real and imaginary elements of images that can mislead as well as inform.” Continue reading.
The exhibit runs between February 7 and September 2, 2012. For more information, visit OI.uchicago.edu/museum.
