Czére Andrea szerk.: A Szépművészeti Múzeum közleményei 102-103. (Budapest, 2005)
ANNUAL REPORT 2005 - A 2005. ÉV - LÁSZLÓ TÖRÖK: After the Pharaos: Treasures of Coptic Art from Egyptian Collections
(as illustrated by a seventeenth-century icon from a private collection, and Yohanna Al Armani's [?] famous icon representing St Antony and St Paul painted in 1777 for the Monastery of Abu Sefein in Old Cairo). The monumental art created for churches and monasteries was represented by column capitals and wall painting fragments from the Monastery of Apa Jeremias at Saqqara and figurai reliefs from the Monastery of Apa Apollo at Bawit. A so far largely underrated fragment of a large-size sixth-century double-faced processional icon from Bawit corroborates the view according to which a part of the earliest icons (the bulk of which are preserved in the Monastery of St Catherine at Mount Sinai) were painted in Egypt and not in Constantinople. A greater role was assigned in this unit to works of art originating from provincial workshops, in order to visualise the stratification of artistic production, the Christianisation of traditional Egyptian symbols and sacral images in private religiosity, and the impact of high art on the emergence of "simple forms" in the manufacture of objects of everyday use, including children's toys, as well as artefacts of magical significance. The army of the Arab general 'Amr ibn al-'As appeared at Egypt's border in 639, and by 642 it had completely conquered the land. The structure, economic position, and way of life of the old landowning elite did not change immediately with the arrival of a new elite. Alexandria maintained its contacts with the Christian world, and the existence of the Monophysite Church was instrumental in the maintenance of Coptic literacy, providing a framework for the preservation of the ethnic, social and cultural identity of the Egyptian Christians —which also included elements of the literature, iconography and art forms of the Early Byzantine period. Wall paintings from Bawit and Saqqara indicated at the exhibition the survival of sixth- and seventh-century iconographie and stylistic traditions in the eighth century. As demonstrated by late (ninth to twelfth century) textiles in the exhibition, Islamic ornaments reinforced the earlier trend of creating "simple forms". The exhibition was conceived as an organic unit of objects arranged according to their conceptual, formal, stylistic and aesthetic interconnections, and of printed and electronic information. The basis of this information was constituted by the results of the modern research of the history and art of Egypt in the Late Antique, Early Byzantine and Early Islamic periods, and by the special research carried out for the exhibition. Besides the electronic information, including a virtual exhibition and an introduction into the Egyptian art of the periods covered by the exhibition (the work
