Image:
1. A Postcard, "Treasures of Tutankhamun, Gaming board"
Published by George Rainbird Limited c.1973
10.2 x 15 cm
2.
A segment of imitation cowberry twig from a silver plastic Christmas wreath.
11 x 7 cm (approximately)
Description:
A photograph of a segment of a plastic Christmas wreath laid flat across a postcard showing an image of Tutankhamun's Senet board game. The plastic wreath, possibly modelled on a wreath of cowberry twigs consistent with Christmas Tree decorations, is painted with silver spray enamel suggesting an idealised image of an encasement of frozen snow and ice. The unnatural colouring and rough modelling of the plastic render the representation unconvincing. The wreath segment is laid over a dated photograph of Tutankhamun's Senet game board, a sledge-like piece of funerary furniture made of ebony, ivory and gold. The Senet game board was discovered by Howard Carter in an annex to King Tut's tomb in 1922. In the Book of the Dead and other other Egyptian religious texts Senet is described as a game played by the deceased against a divine opponent to decide his fate in the underworld. The game has also often been compared to chess. (see note A for further explanation of Senet.) This reproduction of the image of the Senet board was published as a postcard by George Rainbird Limited c.1973 as an adjunct to a popular series of illustrated books published by Rainbird collectively titled, Treasures of Tutankhamun. Light from a camera flash is reflected on the gloss surface of the postcard and the plastic wreath segment rendering the centre-most point of the postcard almost completely white and lending the plastic wreath the look of lightning bolts in a night sky.
Discussion:
These two representations–the plastic silver wreath fragment used in some Western societies at Christmas in celebrations of the birth of Jesus Christ, and the gold and ebony Senet sledge ushering the Egyptian Sun God to the netherworld–are tiny fragments of larger complex belief systems, the visual languages of which centre around the death and (re)birth of a deity/God whose images and historical narratives are intrinsically linked to the star at the centre of our solar system.
Images of death and (re)birth are central to the visual languages of many (if not all) belief systems. In ancient Egypt the daily movement of the sun and moon was viewed not merely as a natural phenomenon but as daily affirmation of the triumph of life over death. The Sun was the physical manifestation of Re, the chief god of the pharaohs and also represented the Aten, a god who bestowed life through his light. During the reign of Tutenkhamen (in ancient Egypt he was believed to be the physical manifestation of the Aten), the Aten became the sole official god of Egypt.
In some western households the birth of Jesus Christ is celebrated on December 25 by decorating the home and often a tree with brightly coloured images (stars, bells etc) and other ornaments often painted gold or silver which reflect light. It is suggested that the date for this celebration was selected as it corresponded with the Roman festival of Dies Natalis Solis Invicti, or "Birthday of the Unconquered Sun" or with one or more ancient polytheistic festivals that occurred near the southern solstice (i.e., the Roman winter solstice). Jesus is also referred to in terms of the sun in the Bible (Malachi 4:2) as the "Sun of righteousness" a phrase which describes Jesus literally/ poetically as personification or representation of the sun.
The image is a collision. The impact of this collision might be indicated by the bright flash (a star?) reflected on the gloss surface of the postcard, and–ala Metalica–the suggestion of lightning which the bright flash gives to the silver branches of the wreath segment. This is a collision of two Kings, two worlds, two historical "Legends", of high and low visual cultures, of intense heat and intense cold, of birth and death, bringing to mind Manray's "chance meeting" and other links to the Surrealists, namely Duchamp, may be made through the formal similarities shared by the Senet board and the chess board. Egypt’s significant and diverse impact on surrealism has been well documented (see Dada and Surrealism, Number 19, Issue 1 (2013), “Wonderful Things”: Surrealism and Egypt). As Martine Antle notes: “among all the countries of the Middle East, Egypt remained the country of predilection for surrealism throughout the vanguard period” (2006). Among the Egyptian Surrealists Georges Henein and the group et liberté regarded surrealism as the “means to create a new mythology reconciling reality and legend.” In his article, "The Foolishness of Living: Georges Henein Between Worlds", (Dada Surrealism no.19 2013), citing Henein's peripatetic life divided between Cairo, Madrid and Rome, the art historian Michael Richardson quotes Sarane Alexandrian's description of Henein as a “wayfarer of two worlds” (Georges Henein 67). The notion of the wayfarer might well be applied to these two great Kings; both Jesus and Tutankhamun (and for that matter Santa Claus who might be considered as a sort of immortal) are narrated as being of both this world and another and both journey back to that world at the time of their death whilst remaining (returning) to this world through the representations of their image.
The image is a collision. The impact of this collision might be indicated by the bright flash (a star?) reflected on the gloss surface of the postcard, and–ala Metalica–the suggestion of lightning which the bright flash gives to the silver branches of the wreath segment. This is a collision of two Kings, two worlds, two historical "Legends", of high and low visual cultures, of intense heat and intense cold, of birth and death, bringing to mind Manray's "chance meeting" and other links to the Surrealists, namely Duchamp, may be made through the formal similarities shared by the Senet board and the chess board. Egypt’s significant and diverse impact on surrealism has been well documented (see Dada and Surrealism, Number 19, Issue 1 (2013), “Wonderful Things”: Surrealism and Egypt). As Martine Antle notes: “among all the countries of the Middle East, Egypt remained the country of predilection for surrealism throughout the vanguard period” (2006). Among the Egyptian Surrealists Georges Henein and the group et liberté regarded surrealism as the “means to create a new mythology reconciling reality and legend.” In his article, "The Foolishness of Living: Georges Henein Between Worlds", (Dada Surrealism no.19 2013), citing Henein's peripatetic life divided between Cairo, Madrid and Rome, the art historian Michael Richardson quotes Sarane Alexandrian's description of Henein as a “wayfarer of two worlds” (Georges Henein 67). The notion of the wayfarer might well be applied to these two great Kings; both Jesus and Tutankhamun (and for that matter Santa Claus who might be considered as a sort of immortal) are narrated as being of both this world and another and both journey back to that world at the time of their death whilst remaining (returning) to this world through the representations of their image.
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| Tutankhamun and Jesus Christ are both representations of and represented by images and representations of the Sun. |
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| A representation of Santa Claus' sledge. |
NOTES:
A: "Nothing is known with certainty about the rules of play for either game, but it is believed that the aim of each player in senet was to be the first to reach the square at the angle of the L-shaped arrangement inscribed with three signs meaning "happiness, beauty". The square preceding it may have been a hazard, because its hieroglyphs represent water. Certainly it was a game of chance, the moves being determined by the throw either of knucklebones or of four casting sticks, both of which were found in the tomb. The casting sticks were of two kinds, one pair having ends in the form of the tips of human fingers and the ends of the other being carved in the form of a long-eared canine animal, probably a fox. Both pairs consist of black ebony in the upper half and white ivory in the lower half. Perhaps the number of points scored from a cast depended on the number of sticks that finished with the white or black side uppermost when they were cast. Besides the reference in the Book of the Dead to the game of senet, another religious text mentions what appears to be the same, or at least a very similar, game played by the deceased against a divine opponent to decide his fate in the underworld. The extant versions of this text all date from later than the time of Tutankhamun, but they may preserve an ancient belief. Nothing, however, in the character of his boards suggests that they were specially intended for religious or funerary purposes. The incised inscriptions filled with yellow pigment on the sides and ends of this box are strictly mundane, wishing the king life and prosperity and employing such titles and epithets as "The Strong Bull, beautiful of birth, image of Ra, precious offspring [literally "egg"] of Atum, king of Upper and Lower Egypt, ruler of the nine bows [i.e. foreign lands], lord of all the lands, and possessor of might Nebkheperura". On the other side he is called "Fair of laws, he who pacifies the Two Lands, 'the Horus of Gold' exalted of crowns who placates the gods". The short inscriptions around the drawer, which are of the same kind, describe him as "The good god, lord of the Two Lands, lord of crowns whom Ra created" and "Beloved of all the gods, may he be healthy, living forever". The three component parts of this piece were found scattered about the Annex."
