The Museo Egizio or Eyptian Museum of Turin
is the world’s oldest Egyptian museum; founded in 1824, it ranks second
only to Cairo. Dedicated exclusively to ancient Egyptian culture and
art, the museum's collection has been the subject of interest for some
of history’s most important scholars, for instance Jean-François Champollion,
decipherer of the Rosetta Stone. To such is attributed the fact that
Turin is considered to be the city where Egyptology began.
The Museum of Egyptian Antiquities is composed of objects obtained throughout the centuries, as well as in the Italian Archaeological Mission’s excavation sites between 1900 and 1935.
Collecting
Egyptian antiques was all the rage in the 19th Century: in 1824, King
Charles Felix of Sardinia united the collection of Paduan Egyptologist,
Vitaliano Donati, to the finds owned by the House of Savoy - thus
inaugurating the first Egyptian Museum in the world. Just a few years
before that, and consequent to the Napoleonic Campaigns in Egypt,
Bernardino Drovetti (Piedmontese that served as Consul General of France
during the Egyptian occupation), collected 8,000 items: sarcophagi,
mummies, papyri, jewels and statues. Then, the Museum’s first director, Ernesto Schiaparelli,
led archaeologists in new excavations in Egypt, resulting in the
discovery of 30,000 more pieces (artistic, and domestic quotidian tools)
to add to its collection.
Today the Museum is expanding even
further. Mummies and sacred animals have always been on display, but
ornaments and furnishings are highlighted to capture – with great
precision – the life of both people and Pharaoh. Museum curators and
personnel are leaving no stone unturned in making sure Jean-François
Champollion’s quip, that "the road to Memphis and Thebes passes through
Turin," holds true.
Among the most significant of vestiges found are the intact tomb of Kha and Merit, along with the rupestrian temple of Ellesija. However, perhaps the most important from an historical perspective is the Turin Royal Canon
or Turin King List, one of the most informative sources of Egyptian
royal succession. In Hieratic scripts, it contains the names of the 15th
Dynasty kings and their years of reign. Also highly astounding are the
statues of the gods Isis and Sekhmet, and the statue of Ramses II, found
by Vitaliano Donati in the Temple of Mut in Karnak.
(Quoted from : http://www.italia.it/en/travel-ideas/culture-and-entertainment/the-egyptian-museum-of-turin.html)
The first visit since the museum is renovated and we couldn't finished all the exhibition rooms, will have to go back again some other time.
So happy to see a group of this little mandarin ducks still active at the river Po, was a bit worry not seeing them around last year. Being the more beautiful and smaller ducks, they are often being bully by the bigger birds such as the gullls. Once I saw a gull was chasing after one of this beautiful creature, almost made me wanted to throw a stone to send the gull away.
Hope these mandarin ducks would stay well and reproduce more on this side of river Po, they bring such joy to the view of the river.
As a huge Pikachu appeared in piazza San Carlo, a group of bersaglieri on bicycles rushed through the piazza....bizarre!
And then they kept going....
The Bersaglieri (Marksmen in English) are a corps of the Italian Army originally created by General Alessandro La Marmora on 18 June 1836 to serve in the Army of the Kingdom of Sardinia, later to become the Royal Italian Army. They have always been a high-mobility light infantry
unit, and can still be recognized by the distinctive wide brimmed hat
that they wear (only in dress uniform in modern times), decorated with black capercaillie feathers.
The feathers are usually applied to their combat helmets. Another
distinctive trait of the Bersaglieri is the fast jog pace they keep on
parades, instead of marching.
( Quote from : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bersaglieri )
Early Spring, the ducks seem more knee to fly....
A walk by the river, was surprised to see the ducks usually just sit around the river bank or floating on the river, were actually flying.
Was quite difficult to capture photo of them flying without the proper gears, but still couldn't resist to snap a shot or two.
After a few days of clear sky and sun shines, the rain is back.....
Pouring water down on the streets of Turin, creating ponds all over the town.
With an occasion like that, it might be fun to take some reflection shots.
The art installaion was setup in the courtyard of the University of Torino, it was created specially for the university.
It is a reflection on the theme of color in urban life and how color can change the perception of spaces and places.
In
this specific case, the intervention is on a severe architecture,
historically characterized by architectural aspects of great charm. The
intervention of Zhang Hongmei, therefore, aims, while respecting the
pre-existing architectural aspects, to give a new interpretation to this
place with the inclusion of elements, colored, derived from the Chinese
tradition. The
mix, between the decorative taste, of the Chinese architectural
tradition, fits thus, in the frame of a place, by the great Sabauda
tradition.
The
columns of the majestic courtyard, clad by Zhang Hongmei of colorful
inlays, made even more suggestive, a place, already beautifully
characterized, and highlighting in an extraordinary way the splendid
perspective of the colonnade.
The
installation curated and organized by Vincenzo Sanfo and by Prof.
Stafutti Stafutti of the Confucius Institute of Turin, in collaboration
with the University of Turin, Shandong Provincial Department of Culture,
Diffusion Italy International Group and Shandong Zaimei Cultural,
avails itself of the patronage of the city of Turin.
Finally the signs of spring began to show, pretty little flowers showinng up on the big dark tree trunks and the branches....
There is a phrase in chinse : 海天一色 meaning the sea and the sky are of one color, to describe the sky and the sea sharing the same colors as though they have merged into each other.
This was taken at the salt lake in Trapani
This was taken in Cambodia 2018.
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