Metropolitan Museum of Art Shows Experimental Lighting Display

By Casey Heely January 29, 2016

The Metropolitan Museum of Art is experimenting with a light display in the Ancient Egypt exhibit to show how the Temple of Dendur may have looked when it was first built.

Starting Friday, Jan. 29, the Metropolitan Museum of Art will show an experimental art display that combines Egyptology with digital technology. Children and their families can witness what the ancient Egyptian Temple of Dendur looked like 2,000 years ago when its vibrant colors were still intact. By combining Egyptian Art Department specialists’ scholarly knowledge of this ancient art and modern digital technology, the Metropolitan Museum of Art is able to project the colors that were most likely used by the Egyptian artists onto the ancient markings of the temple to transport children and families back in time.

The display, called Color the Temple: Scene 1, will illuminate the scene of “the Roman emperor Augustus, depicted as a pharaoh, mak[ing] an offering to Egyptian deities,” according to the museum’s press release. Since the temple was constructed during the actual reign of the emperor Augustus Caesar and completed in 10 B.C., the temple has not been able to retain any of its original color. The museum hopes this display will allow viewers to see this ancient Egyptian art in a different light.

The Temple of Dendur is located in The Sackler Wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This display can be viewed for no additional charge upon admission to the museum for the next eight Fridays and Saturdays from 5-9pm (Jan. 29 and 30; Feb. 5, 6, 12, 13, 19, 20, 26, and 27; and March 4, 5, 11, 12, 18, and 19).

Main photo: An experimental lighting display, Color the Temple: Scene 1, at The Temple of Dendur in The Sackler Wing at the Metropolitan Museum.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art/Filip Wolak

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