Art Eyewitness Book Review: Great Art Explained by James Payne

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Great Art Explained

By James Payne

Thames & Hudson/320 pages/$39.95

Reviewed by Ed Voves

The first great work of art which I ever saw was likely the greatest I ever will see. 

The date was 1964 and the place was the New York World's Fair. The "great" work of art was The Pieta by Michelangelo. Loaned by the Vatican for the World's Fair and transported with elaborate safety measures, it was truly a moment in art history. Upon its safe return to Rome, The Pieta was declared too precious - and fragile - to ever travel again. 

Michelangelo's The Pieta at the New York World's Fair, 1964 

Viewing The Pieta today is an experience recalling the Resurrection when Christ declared to Mary Magdalene, "Noli me tangere" ("touch me not"). Following a horrifying act of vandalism in 1971, the restored Pieta is now protected by bullet-proof glass.

For those unable to travel to Rome, Michelangelo's portrayal of martyrdom and grief can only be appreciated at second hand, via the pages of a well-illustrated book or an art video. Increasingly, such "noli me tangere" moments apply to masterpieces closer to home, like Starry Night on a crowded day at MOMA.

Ed Voves, Photo (2019)

Gallery view of the Museum of Modern Art, NYC, with

 Vincent van Gogh's Starry Night,1889, in the background

For those craving a less harried look at The Pieta, Starry Night and other "icons" of art, there is also the option of Youtube, notably the popular programs hosted by James Payne.

Payne's YouTube series, Great Art Explained in 15 Minutes, is a fantastic success. It currently offers seventy-seven insightful presentations and is closing-in on two million subscribers. Now, Payne is pursuing the more traditional method of the written word to further his efforts to "demystify" masterpieces for art lovers around the world.

Great Art Explained: the Stories behind the World's Greatest Masterpieces is published by Thames & Hudson. This is significant for two reasons. T&H has been "demystifying" art for scholars and general readers for over seventy-five years. Moreover, the signature format of T&H books, especially the World of Art paperbacks, is the close integration of word and image, precisely what Payne is doing on YouTube.

Author and publisher are brilliantly matched in a book of exceptional merit. Great Art Explained will surely please Payne's Youtube audience, as well as readers who have yet to tune in to his series. Great Art Explained succeeds on every level of art scholarship and appreciation  - and shear enjoyment.

Payne begins explaining art by examining one of the greatest works of Asian art. This is the extraordinary handscroll, Along the River during the Qingming Festival, attributed to a Chinese artist named Zhang Zeduan. 

Measuring 17 ft x 10 in. (5 metres x 25.5 cm.), Along the River dates to China's Song dynasty. It was created sometime between 1085-1145, the high point of Song rule in Northern China. 

Detail from a copy, c. 18th century, after Zhang Zeduan's Along the River during the Qingming Festival, Song Dynasty, 1085-1145

Zeduan's painting, ink on silk and paper, is a tribute to prosperity and  political stability, real or imagined. The throng of tiny citizens may inhabit an idealized depiction of the city of Bianjing, but this is the ideal upon which civilizations are based.

Along the River during the Qingming Festival has been regarded as a national treasure of China almost since its completion. Numerous copies have been made over the centuries. One of these, a colorized version, is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Jan van Eyck, The Arnolfini Portrait, 1434

By contrast, there are only two protagonists - and two reflected figures - in Payne's next selection, The Arnolfini Portrait. Painted by Jan van Eyck in 1434, this is a work of startling immediacy. Rich fabrics, a brass chandelier, the ornate mirror, expensive oranges ripening on the window sill point to a comfortable, untroubled middle class life style. Or, after a second glance, maybe not.

Detail of the mirror in Jan van Eyck's The Arnolfini Portrait. The reflected figure, dressed in blue, is believed to be Van Eyck.

With The Arnolfini Portrait is one of the most mysterious works of art ever created. The symbolic meanings of its profusion of brilliantly articulated details have been endlessly debated. Nearly six hundred years after he painted it, Van Eyck is still keeping us guessing. 

Is this a marriage portrait, as was once widely believed? If so, is the lady in green gathering her robe to suggest - or conceal - that she is pregnant? Why is there a bed in the living room? What does the hand raised in benediction signify? One radical theory holds that this gesture reveals Giovanni Arnolfini was a member of a secret religious sect.

With a palette full of insights, Payne paints a different perspective. Instead of celebrating married life or esoteric rituals, The Arnolfini Portrait is a mournful tribute to the green-clad lady of the house. Costanza Trenta married Giovanni Arnolfini in 1426, dying in 1433 - one year before Van Eyck painted their dual portrait. 

Payne concludes that this enigmatic work is actually a memorial painting for Costanza. He then proceeds to discuss a wide range of details underscoring the sad fact of her demise. He notes, for instance, that the frisky dog in the painting likely references "the common practice of placing dogs at the feet of women on late medieval tomb effigies."

The clinching argument regarding this elegiac work of art is the touching gesture at the very center of the painting. 

Payne writes of the way that Arnolfini grasps the hand of his wife:

Yet perhaps the most compelling evidence is the tentative way in which he holds her hand, as if she is on the brink of slipping away from his grasp. Ultimately, the painting can be said to embody the essence of a love that transcends even death itself.

Payne's empathetic examination of The Arnolfini Portrait is indicative of the way he treats all thirty of the works of art "explained" in his book - and the artists who created these masterpieces.

From a Renaissance allegory like Botticelli's The Birth of Venus to Hilma af Klint's pioneering Abstract works, from Hokusai's ukiyo-e print, Under the Wave off Kanagawa to the polished marble of Rodin's The Kiss, Payne expertly guides us to better appreciate these familiar images. Along the way, he pinpoints visual details we never noticed before, influential trends and ideas of which we were only dimly aware.

       

Works of Art included in Great Art Explained.

 Clockwise, from top left,  Botticelli's The Birth of Venus, 1485; Hilma af Klint's Group X,No. 2. Altarpiece, 1915; Rodin's The Kiss, 1882; Hokusai's Under the Wave off Kanagawa, 1830-33.

Payne surveys these thirty masterpieces with a judicious blend of story-telling, technical analysis and social commentary. An amazing number of little known facts are added to the mix, which enable readers to see these works of art in a new light. 

Michelangelo's Pieta is a case in point. Today, The Pieta has become a defining image of the Italian Renaissance. However, the artistic motif of the dead body of the crucified Jesus being held by his mother, Mary, originated over a century before in Germany. This motif created problems for Italian artists, who found it awkward to pose the body of a grown man in the arms of his aged mother.

Disregarding precedent, Michelangelo solved the problem by reducing the stature of Christ's body to that of an adolescent youth. Mary's physique and her billowing robes were increased in order to support the body of her dead son. 

Michelangelo's The Pieta on view in St. Peter's Basilica, Rome

Most people, viewing The Pieta hardly notice these anatomical alterations. Michelangelo was able to transform this scene of suffering, making it appear graceful and poignant - and believable. How did the 24-year old sculptor achieve this incredible balance of attributes?

Michelangelo's technical mastery is obviously the prime determinant of success. But he was able to create an emotional bond between the sculpted-marble Mary and Jesus which exists in the living hearts and souls of all humankind. 

When we behold a tragic scene such as this, we do feel pity for the stricken mother and child. But we are moved to a very great degree by a sense of identification. Viewing their tragedy, we feel a tug on the emotional umbilical chord linking ourselves and the women who gave us life.

The Pieta succeeds by directly involving the viewer in the primal human drama of love and loss. So does a vastly different work of art which Payne brilliantly probes, though the principal emotion in this painting is lust.

We are referring, of course, to Picasso's Les Demoiselles d'Avignon.

Ed Voves, Photo (2019)

Gallery view of the Museum of Modern Art, NYC,

 showing Pablo Picasso's Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, 1907

Payne's "you-are-there" analysis of Les Demoiselles deserves a brief quotation, in order to show the very high caliber of his insights and narrative skill. 

Payne notes that Picasso's original design of the "Bordel d'Avignon" included two male clients - which he discarded in the finished painting. 

Payne writes:

By eradicating the men and focusing exclusively on female figures, Picasso explores a more complex relationship between sex, power, desire, the male gaze and artistic representation. With the female figures' attention directed away from the clients and towards us, the viewer, we are implicitly cast in the role of a potential client, transforming our viewing experience into an uncomfortable encounter with the act of looking and consuming the female body.

If Picasso was unsparing in shoving viewers through the brothel door- where they may or may-not wish to go - Payne responds in kind. He judges the Spanish painter with uncharacteristic severity for his personal conduct, as the "artist's deplorable treatment of women left behind a trail of destruction."

In the case of all the other artists included in Great Art Explained, there is a palpable sense of empathy between author and subject. This is especially true for the eight women artists in the book. Not only is this a significant percentage of the total number of artists "explained" by Payne, but he has included Suzanne Valadon and Hilma af Klint, along with more familiar figures like Frida Kahlo.

Valadon and af Klint were two female painters of exceptional talent, who only a decade or so, ago, scarcely merited a mention in a survey of art for general readers like Great Art Explained. 

Suzanne Valadon, The Blue Room, 1923

I was privileged to be able to review one of the recent exhibitions which helped to bring Valadon's oeuvre to a wider audience. This was at the Barnes Foundation in 2021 where the painting selected by Payne for focused study, The Blue Room, was prominently displayed. Payne chose wisely including Valadon and The Blue Room in Great Art Explained.

However, it is a rare art book which can escape some measure of carping criticism for picking this or that artist over one who really "deserves" to be included. Why was Monet selected rather than Manet? Turner rather than Constable? Etc., etc.

For my part, I have to question why Payne chose four Renaissance works, separated by only a few short years. Even if they were created by Botticelli,  Hieronymus Bosch, Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, this seems a bit like stacking the deck. Couldn't he have found space for a painting or sculpture from the Mannerist era of the mid-1500's?

Agnolo Bronzino, Venus, Cupid, Folly and Time, 1545

After all, if ever a painting needs to be "explained", it is Agnolo Bronzino's Venus, Cupid, Folly and Time. I've been trying to figure-out that one for years - and I'm not even close.

***

Text: Copyright of Ed Voves, all rights reserved. Original photos by Anne Lloyd and Ed Voves, all rights reserved.

Introductory Image: Anne Lloyd, Photo (2017) Gallery view of Old Masters Now: Celebrating the Johnson Collection, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Nov. 2017-Feb. 2018.

Michelangelo's The Pieta at the New York World's Fair, 1964. Vatican Slide, D-1. http://www.worldsfairphotos.com/nywf64/vatican.htm

Ed Voves, Photo (2019) Gallery view of the Museum of Modern Art, NYC, with Vincent van Gogh's Starry Night, 1889, in the background.

Cover art of Great Art Explained by James Payne, 2025. Courtesy of Thames & Hudson

Copy after Zhang Zeduan's Along the River during the Qingming Festival, Song Dynasty, 1085-1145. Copy attributed to the 18th century. Handscroll; ink and color on silk: 11 3/4 in. x 33 ft. (29.8 x 1004.6 cm) Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Jan van Eyck (Flemish, c. 1390-1441) The Arnolfini Portrait, 1434. Oil on wood: 82.2 × 60 (32 3/8 × 23 5/8). © The National Gallery, London.

A Sampler of Art Works included in Great Art Explained: Sandro Botticelli's The Birth of Venus,1485. 172.5 × 278.5 (68 × 109 6/8) © Gallerie degli Uffizi, Florence; Hilma af Klint's Group X, No, 2. Altarpiece,1915. Oil and metal leaf on canvas, 238 ×179 (93 3/4 × 70 1/2). © Hilma af Klint Foundation; Auguste Rodin's The Kiss (copy) displayed at the Rodin Museum, Philadelphia; Hokusai's     Under the Wave off Kanagawa, from Thirty-six views of Mount Fuji,  c. 1830-33.

• Woodblock print; ink and color on paper: 10 x 15 in. (25.4 x 38.1 cm) Metropolitan Museum of Art

Michelangelo (Italian, 1475-1564) The Pieta, 1499. St. Peter's Basilica, the Vatican. Marble sculpture: 174 cm × 195 cm (68.5 in × 76.8 in) Original photo by Stanislav Traykov, 2008, Creative Commons. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piet%C3%A0_(Michelangelo)

Ed Voves, Photo (2019) Gallery view of the Museum of Modern Art, NYC, showing Pablo Picasso's Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, 1907. Oil on canvas: 8' x 7' 8" (243.9 x 233.7 cm) Museum of Modern Art.

Ed Voves, Photo (2021) Suzanne Valadon's The Blue Room, 1923. Centre Pompidou – Musée National d’Art Moderne/CCI, Paris, on deposit to the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Limoges. Photo taken at the Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia, 2021.

Agnolo Bronzino (Italian, 1503-1572) Venus, Cupid, Folly and Time,1545. Oil on wood: 146.1 x 116.2 cm.  © The National Gallery, London. 

Art Eyewitness Review: Divine Egypt at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

 

Divine Egypt

Metropolitan Museum of Art

October 12, 2025 - January 19, 2026 

Reviewed by Ed Voves

Original photography by Anne Lloyd and Ed Voves

Visitors to the web site of the Metropolitan Museum of Art are greeted with the welcoming statement, "The Met presents 5,000 years of art from around the world for everyone to experience and enjoy."

That's no idle remark. The Met does indeed share great works of art from across the centuries and spanning the entire human habitat. 

What is remarkable about this statement is that one of the star performers among the Met's nineteen curatorial departments presents works of art created in just one geographical location for a period of over 3000 years.

Where was this society of ancient over-achievers to be found? It was the extraordinary nation whose "lifeblood" was the Nile River. From the waters of the Nile arose the "black land." Carefully cultivated, this narrow ribbon of rich soil produced bountiful crops of wheat and barley, of temples and tombs.

This astonishing realm was, of course, Egypt.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2025)

 Triad of Osiris, Isis, and Horus, 872-837 B.C.

The Met's Department of Egyptian Art is mounting its most audacious enterprise since the opening of the Temple of Dendur in September 1978, which was followed a few months later by the fabled Treasures of Tutankhamun exhibition at the Met.

Divine Egypt charts the entire course of ancient Egyptian history. This is a radical departure from earlier exhibitions focusing on a single era, like the Met's 2015 Ancient Egypt Transformed: The Middle Kingdom (2010 -1630 B.C.). From the pre-dynastic period (beginning around 3,800 B.C.) to the occupation of Egypt by the Greeks under Alexander the Great three millennia later, Divine Egypt emphasizes the centrality of religion in the lives of generation after generation of people living along the banks of the Nile.

Ed Voves, Photo (2025) 

   Gallery view  of Divine Egypt , showing, from left, Double Statue of King Haremhab and Horus, ca. 1323–1295 B.C. & Hathor seated between King Menkaure and a Personification of the Hare Nome, ca. 2490–2472 B.C.

Divine Egypt at the Met is not a "once in a lifetime" exhibition but, rather, one for the ages.

Max Hollein, the President/CEO of The Met, Diana Craig Patch, head of the Met's Egyptian art department, and the entire Divine Egypt team have achieved a level of curatorial excellence where even the remark, "only the Met could have done this", is not praise enough.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2025)

Max Hollein, President/CEO of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 

examining the statue of Wepwawet and Isis-Hathor, 1279-1213 B.C.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2025)

 Diana Craig Patch, head of the department of Egyptian Art at The Met

Two hundred works of art in a wide range of artistic media insure that Divine Egypt is a visually stunning exhibit, as well as an encyclopedic treatment of Egyptian culture. Most of these "beautiful things" proclaimed Egypt's inter-twined religious and political ideology, but quite a few served utilitarian purposes as well.

Anne Lloyd, Photos (2025)

At left, Water Lily Attachment (1070-664 B.C.), probably a processional ornament; Mirror Displaying a Bat-like Face, 1479-1425 B.C.

One hundred forty of these works of art come from the Met's own collection. Others have traveled from the Louvre, the Ny Carlsberg in Denmark, the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, and the British Museum, which loaned its huge sculpture of a sacred scarab beetle. Easily, the most alarming object in the Met's exhibition (at least, to modern eyes), the scarab beetle was a more reassuring creature to ancient Egyptians. It symbolized creation and rebirth.

Ed Voves, Photo (2025) 

Gallery view of the Divine Egypt exhibit, showing a scarab sculpture,

 Ptolomaic era, 332-30 B.C. from the British Museum collection

From closer to home, comes one of the first highlights of Divine Egypt. This is the Triad Statue of Hathor, King Menhaure and a Personification of the Hare Nome. Excavated by the famous Harvard University–Museum of Fine Arts Boston Expedition in 1908–9, this Old Kingdom sculpture never loses its power.

Ed Voves, Photo (2025) 

 Hathor seated between King Menkaure and a Personification of the

 Hare Nome, Old Kingdom, Dynasty 4, ca. 2490–2472 B.C. 

The extraordinary masterpieces displayed in Divine Egypt illustrate five key themes of the Egyptian attitude to daily living and eternal life.

This topical approach stresses insight into fundamental ideals and a sense of continuity rather than a conventional historical narrative. Let's take a look at these themes.

The first theme, "Expressing the Divine", focuses on two of Egypt's oldest gods: Horus and Hathor. The falcon-headed Horus can be traced back to pre-dynastic times. Hathor, a shape-shifting, nurturing deity is first documented in 2,600 B.C., during the Old Kingdom. This goddess was certainly a potent spiritual figure far earlier.

Ed Voves, Photo (2025) 

Hathor Pendant, Napatan era, 747-713 B.C. 1665. 

Hathor is recognizable by her distinctive head-ornament composed of cattle horns and a sun disk. This regalia evoked the very distant past of the Egyptians when many of them were nomads with herds of cattle which grazed on the "Green" Sahara. Then a shift in weather patterns, from 4900 to 4400 B.C., scorched this verdant area, evaporating its lakes and rivers and turning the grasslands into the world's most formidable desert. With Hathor as their guide, these first Egyptians found refuge in the valley of the Nile.

According to a later Egyptian writing, the fearsome-visaged Horus battled Seth, the god of the desert and lord of chaos, in a cosmic struggle to determine who would rule Egypt. 

Horus emerged as victor in this mythological combat, earning a prominent place in both religious and political iconography. In Egypt, these were practically the same thing.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2025)

Double Statue of King Haremhab and Horus, ca. 1323–1295 B.C.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2025)

 Serekh of King Raneb, Dynasty 2, ca. 2880 B.C.

So important was Horus to Egypt's identity, that all pharaohs took a "Horus name" as part of their title. The symbol of a falcon was placed on top of a rectangular emblem of a palace (above).This badge of authority was called a serekh, usually sculpted onto granite pillars called stelae.

Where Hathor changed her appearance in often bewildering ways, Horus the Falcon retained his original identity, century after century. This can be studied by examining one of the oldest, if rather mundane, artifacts on view in Divine Egypt. This, in turn, may be contrasted with one of the most striking works of art in the entire exhibition.

From left: Ed Voves, Photo (2025) Wine Jar with an early Serekh.  Predynastic Period, ca. 3300–2960 B.C; Anne Lloyd, Photo (2025) 

Statue of Horus as a Falcon Protecting King Nectanebo II, 360 B.C.

The earthenware vessel, likely a wine jar, in the above illustration was produced at some point between 3300 to 2960 B.C. If the latter date is the correct one, then it was created 2,600 years before the Statue of Horus as a Falcon Protecting King Nectanebo II. But this staggering age differential is not the most significant feature of these contrasting artifacts. Both are dedicated to Horus.

Ed Voves, Photo (2025)

 Detail of Horus/Falcon Motif on a Wine Jar with an early Serekh.  Predynastic Period, ca. 3300–2960 B.C.

If you carefully examine the pitted surface of the wine jar, you will see a carefully inscribed symbol of a falcon, standing on top of a serekh. Its design is similar to a serekh associated with the first pharaoh, Narmer, who unified Egypt's two major regions.

The wine jar comes from the area of Naqada. Located in the bend of the Nile in Upper (southern) Egypt, Naqada was one of the first major cities on the banks of the Nile. This was the region ruled by Narmer before he subdued the northern, delta area of Egypt, where the Nile flows into the Mediterranean Sea.

Since beer was the national drink of Egypt and wine was a rare, mostly imported, product, this raises a tantalizing speculation. Might this wine jar, marked with the Horus serekh, have been transported from the Mediterranean coast as a tribute gift for Narmer or another early Egyptian ruler of the unified kingdom?

We are never likely to answer this question for certain. But the representation of Horus on both of these remarkable works of art testifies to the astonishing longevity of Egyptian religious symbolism and the enduring faith experience which sustained it, century upon century.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2025)

 Gallery view of Divine Egypt showing an Obelisk from a cemetery for sacred mummified rams, Ptolemaic Period, 332-30 B.C.

The second theme, "Ruling the Cosmos", shifts our attention to Amun-Re, whose majestic countenance is revealed in the introductory image of this review. Sun God and supreme ruler of Egypt's numerous gods and goddesses, Amun-Re made a daily journey across the sky bringing light and life to the world. At night, he ventured to the underworld to preserve the cosmic order of "what was right."

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2025)

 Relief of Maat, New Kingdom, reign of Seti I, ca. 1294–1279 B.C.

While engaged in these tasks, Amun-Re could rely on the assistance of subordinates from the Egyptian pantheon. Especially important was Goddess Maat, who judged the souls of human beings by weighing them with the ostrich feather which adorned her wig.

In the third theme, the curators of Divine Egypt emphasize a truly distinctive attribute of Egyptian religion. There was not one creation myth to explain how world began. Instead, there were several origin stories. These complemented, rather than contradicted, each other.

Two of the "show-stopper" works of art help us grasp how the multiplicity of gods and goddesses, symbols and coded images worked to create an all-embracing Egyptian "world view." These are the Inner Coffin of Singer Nauny and the Coffin of Wedjarenes.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2025)

 Inner Coffin of Nauny, Third Intermediate period, ca. 1050 B.C.

Ed Voves, Photo (2025)

 Interior of the Coffin of Wedjarenes, Saite period, 600-575 B.C.

In the case of the Coffin of Wedjarenes, the really significant cosmological images are inside the coffin. Only Wedjarenes, the daughter of one of Egypt's priestly caste, can see them. And Wedjarenes will continue to see these for all time. Her body has been properly embalmed and treated with the all of the rituals and prayers which are due to individuals whose souls have been weighed on the ostrich feather of Maat and found worthy of eternal life.

Here we confront one of the central features of Egyptian art, especially the great treasures on view in museums around the world. 

The great mass of Egypt's people seldom glimpsed these works of art; in many cases, even priests like Wedjarenes' father, never saw them at all. 

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2025)

 An installation in the Divine Egypt exhibition evoking Egyptian religious processions. Sacred images of gods like the golden Amun-Re were carried in a shrine on a barque, or boat. 

However, on festival days, certain works of art were placed on movable shrines, shaped like the river boats which ferried the gods through the afterlife. These were carried through the streets of Egyptian cities like Thebes. 

The Met curators created a splendid tableau evoking these public celebrations, with a golden statuette of Amun positioned serenely at its helm. In the actual procession such a stature would have remained shrouded, unseen from the crowds of people, asking and petitioning for a blessing or cure from illness.

        

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2025)

 Statuette of Amun-Re, ca. 945-712 B.C.

No great religion can survive for long without offering outlets for widespread devotion or prayers for divine assistance. Ancient Egypt certain provided these, as shown by the Met's fourth theme, "Coping with Life." But a principal form of popular expression involved Bes-images. As I have had little opportunity to study these curious objects, I will defer commenting on them until I write a follow-up essay on Divine Egypt.

The fifth theme is "Overcoming Death." The Egyptian quest for immortality hardly needs elaboration here. But two points raised in this final exhibit gallery do call for comment.

The main mythological drama surveyed here is the epic tale of the death and rebirth of Osiris, the valiant role of Isis in reviving Osiris, and the procreation of the savior child, Horus. 

Anne Lloyd, Photos (2025)

  Details from statues (from left) of Osiris (664-332 B.C.) -

 Isis/Hathor (1779-1213 B.C.) - Horus the Child (332-30 B.C.)

All of the figures in this legendary story incorporated attributes of older gods and goddesses. Osiris wears a kingly crown and carries the scepters of rulership, like Amun-Re. Isis has become almost indistinguishable from Hathor. Horus, no longer falcon-headed, presents the appealing face of youth and hope for the future.

The second point is perhaps more significant. The Osiris-Isis-Horus myth was immensely appealing - and not just for Egyptians. It pointed the way to the mystery creeds of late-antiquity and the religious revolution of monotheism. 

Over time, Egypt's many gods and goddesses began to merge into an awesome spiritual unity, a divine presence which was no longer to be confined in the darkened recesses of temple and tomb.

***

Text: Copyright of Ed Voves, all rights reserved.

Original photgraphy, copyright of Anne Lloyd and Ed Voves

Introductory image: Anne Lloyd, Photo (2025) A Statue of Amun-Re Presenting and Protecting King Tutankhamun. New Kingdom, Dynasty 18, reign of Tutankhamun (ca. 1336–1327 BCE) From Egypt, Thebes, Karnak. Diorite. Musée du Louvre, Paris, Départment des Antiquités Egyptiennes (E11609)

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2025) Triad of Osiris, Isis, and Horus. Glass, Gold, Lapis Lazuli: 9 × 6.6 cm (3 9/16 × 2 5/8 in.) Pedestal: 5 × 10.3 × 15.2 cm (1 15/16 in. × 4 1/16 in. × 6 in.) Musée du Louvre DE.075

 Ed Voves, Photo (2025) Gallery view of the Divine Egypt Exhibition, showing, from left, Double statue of King Haremhab and Horus, ca. 1323–1295 B.C. and, on the right, Hathor seated between King Menkaure and a Personification of the Hare Nome, ,ca. 2490–2472 B.C. Full citations below.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2025) Max Hollein, President/CEO of the Metropolitan Museum, examines a statue of Wepwawet and Isis/Hathor, 1279-1213 B.C.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2025) Diana Craig Patch, head of the Department of Egyptian Art at The Met.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2025) Water lily attachment, probably for a processional          barque. Bronze, gold foil over gesso; white, dark blue, and light blue glass inlays over light and dark blue grounds: H. 13.5 × W. 15.8 × D. 9.2 cm (5 5/16 × 6 1/4 × 3 5/8 in) The Metropolitan Museum of Art #30.8.232a

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2025)Mirror with a papyrus-shaped handle displaying a Bat-like face. Silver disk with a wood (modern) handle sheathed in gold; the inlays are modern: H. 33.4 × W. 15.5 × D. 2 cm (13 1/8 × 6 1/8 × 13/16 in.) The Metropolitan Museum of Art. #26.8.98

Ed Voves, Photo (2025) Gallery view of the Divine Egypt Exhibition, showing  a Monumental Scarab Stone, Diorite: 153 × 119 × 90 cm, 1600 kg (60 1/4 × 46 7/8 × 35 7/16 in., 3527.4 lb.) British Museum, # DE.097

Ed Voves, Photo (2025) Hathor seated between King Menkaure and a Personification of the Hare Nome, Old Kingdom, Dynasty 4, reign of Menkaure (ca. 2490–2472 B.C.) Graywacke: Stone – Greywacke: 84.5 × 43.5 × 49 cm, 187.8 kg (33 1/4 × 17 1/8 × 19 5/16 in., 414 lb. Harvard University–Museum of Fine Arts Expedition excavations, 1908–9 Museum of Fine Arts Boston. #09.200

Ed Voves, Photo (2025) Hathor-Headed Pendent, Napatan era, 747-713 B.C. Gold and rock crystal: 5.3 x 3.3 cm. (2 1/16 x1 5/16 in.) Museum of Fine Arts Boston

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2025) Double statue of King Haremhab and Horus. New Kingdom, Dynasty 18, reign of Haremhab (ca. 1323–1295 B.C.) Limestone: 53 × 73 × 77 cm, 942 kg (60 1/4 × 28 3/4 × 30 5/16 in., 2076.7 lb.) Pedestal: 40 × 87 × 91 cm (15 3/4 × 34 1/4 × 35 13/16 in.) Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna #ÄS 8301

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2025) Serekh of of King Raneb, Dynasty 2, ca. 2880 B.C.  Granite: 100 x 42.5 x 27 cm. (39 3/8 x16 3/4 x10 5/8 inches) Metropolitan Museum of Art

Ed Voves, Photo (2025) Wine Jar with an early Serekh, Predynastic Period, Naqada III–Early Dynastic Period, Dynasty 1 (ca. 3300–2960 B.C.). Pottery. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, #61.122

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2025) Statue of Horus as a Falcon Protecting King Nectanebo II, 360 B.C. Stone - Metagraywacke:H. 72 × W. 20 × D. 46.5 cm, 55.3 kg (28 3/8 × 7 7/8 × 18 5/16 in., 122 lb.)

Ed Voves, Photo (2025) Detail of Horus/Falcon motif on a Wine Jar with an early Serekh, ca. 3300–2960 B.C.) Citation above.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2025) Gallery view of Divine Egypt showing an Obelisk from a cemetery for sacred mummified rams, Ptolemaic Period, 332-30 B.C.

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2025) Relief of Maat, New Kingdom, Dynasty 19, reign of Seti I (ca. 1294–1279 B.C.). From Egypt, Thebes, Valley of the Kings, tomb of Seti I (KV 17) Limestone painted with pigments. Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Florence (2469)

Ed Voves, Photo (2025) Inner Coffin of the Singer of Amun and Royal Daughter Nauny, Third Intermediate period, ca. 1050. Coniferous wood, Sycomore wood, mud, glue, paste paint, varnish, linen: L. 193 × W. 61 × D. 65.1 cm, 76.2 kg (76 × 24 × 25 5/8 in., 168 lb.) The Metropolitan Museum of Art 30.3.24a, b 

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2025) Inner Coffin of Nauny (detail). See citation, above.

Ed Voves, Photo (2025) Interior of the Coffin of Wedjarenes, Saite period, 600-575 B.C. Wood (tamarisk and sycomore fig), paste, paint: Base (a): H. 190.1 × W. 58.8 × D. 21.7 cm (74 13/16 × 23 1/8 × 8 9/16 in.);Lid (b): H. 191.3 × W. 58.8 × D. 37 cm (75 5/16 × 23 1/8 × 14 9/16 in.) Metropolitan Museum of Art #O.C.22a, b

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2025) An installation in the Divine Egypt exhibition evoking Egyptian religious processions. Sacred images of gods like the golden Amun-Re were carried in a shrine on a barque, or boat. 

Anne Lloyd, Photo (2025) Statuette of Amun, Gold H. 17.5 × W. 4.7 × D. 5.8 cm, 0.9 kg (6 7/8 × 1 7/8 × 2 1/4 in, 2 lbs). The Metropolitan Museum of Art #26.7.1412

Anne Lloyd, Photos (2025) Photo of details of statues of Osiris (664-332 B.C.) - Isis/Hathor (1779-1213 B.C.) - Horus the Child (332-30 B.C.). All three statues are from the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.