June 16, 2000.
I am one of those who never succeed in memorizing which is the weft and which is the woof, no matter how hard they try and in spite of all the clever mnemonic techniques. The himation, chiton, pallium and palla are for me just rather awkward-looking ancient garments which, vaguely, belong to togas and tunics. They seem to have been held in place by little more than wishful thinking, but here watching Frankie Howerd in Carry On films set in classical antiquity may have completely ruined my chances of ever taking them seriously.
I suspect that there are many of us, especially men, who live in such blissful ignorance. But if you happen to be one of the several hundred thousand tourists who visit Prague this summer, don't miss an opportunity to see a beatifully arranged exhibition, somewhat misleadingly called Treasures of Egypt, in the former Imperial Stables at Prague Castle. The much misused word "treasures" conjures up the image of statues, stelae and gold coffins, while this is an exhibition of mostly Coptic textiles. But small treasures they are all the same, those fragments of linen, wool or silk, with beautifully woven geometric or figurative patterns in rich colours among which deep dark red is conspicuous. For me, it was particulary satisfying to see examples of tabby weave which gave the name to our tabby cats. And it was hard to believe that the almost completely preserved woolen cap in red, yellow and white, now in the West Bohemian Museum in Plzen but apparently found at Akhmim in Upper Egypt and dating from the 5th-8th centuries AD, had not been purchased last year in one of the shops selling outdoor camping equipment.
The exhibition has been organized by the Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague and by Prague Castle administration and the exhibits come from various museums in the Czech Republic. Hardly any of them have previously been published and so the book which accompanies the exhibition is well worth acquiring by libraries which collect on Coptic arts. Even the names of the Czech and Moravian towns from which the exhibits come probably mean little to most people: Bruntál, Ceská Skalice, Decín, Chrudim, Krnov, Liberec, Lomnice nad Popelkou, Opava, in addition to Prague, Brno and Plzen.
The textiles were acquired by private collectors Franz Bock, Theodor Graf, Robert Forrer and Adolf Grohmann at the end of the 19th century and many were originally used in the training of students at weaving schools.
Some 250 textile fragments are on display, which is a triumph of mind over matter. Bits of ancient textiles, basically two-dimensional items of roughly the same size, represent a huge challenge to the ingenuity of exhibition designers but here they are displayed in an impeccably imaginative manner. They are combined with some ancient jewellery, vases, papyri and a couple of Faiyum portraits and coffins. Drawings of reconstructed textile patterns give some idea of the original appearance of the mainly linen, wool and silk fabrics. But pride of place goes to the wonderful procession of twenty fully dressed figures, solemnly walking two by two towards a fountain which gently whispers at the far end of the exhibition room. These also include a number of reconstructed costumes of the pharaonic, Greco-Roman and islamic periods.
I still have to refer to the exhibition catalogue in order to tell my chlamys from my paenula, but I do wonder why people have ever given up wearing the paragauda, so manly and so elegant?
The exhibition Treasures of Egypt. Textiles from the Czech and Moravian Collections. Poklady z Egypta. Textilie z ceských a moravských sbírek is at Prague Castle (Hradcany), Imperial Stables (Císarská konírna), 19 April - 27 August, 2000, open daily 10-6 except Mondays. Entry fee 60 Kc (just over 1 GBP, or less than $2).
The soft-cover book Treasures of Egypt. Poklady z Egypta, which accompanies the exhibition, is by N. Bazantová (pp. 72, illustrations, including 16 full-page in colour, in Czech and English, ISBN 80-7101-044-8).
Jaromir Malek
©Jaromir Malek
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For information on the exhibition see the official web site and press release.