Entering the Egyptian Door

The VMFa is the gift that keeps giving.

Since reopening its doors last year, I've logged countless hours at films, plays, lectures, Amuse, the Jazz Cafe, and artist talks.

And every time they open a new show or exhibit, I'm there.

But one of the most satisfying reasons I keep going back is when they open a new gallery.

When the Ife exhibit opened, then so did the African galleries.

And now finally yesterday, the Egyptian gallery was ready for visitors in all its ancient splendor.

I know someone who's always been a fan of Egyptian art, so when I messaged her opening day to ask her when we were going, her response was "ASAP."

That turned out to be 24 hours later.

The beautiful new gallery greets visitors with the large and headless statue of the King of Kush; it's positively majestic.

It's almost like he's beckoning you into the room.

From that point on, we were immersed in the beauty of Egyptian art.

The head for a statue of Sekhret is that of a lioness, down to her whiskers and seeing that it was made in 1391 B.C. boggles the mind.

A cosmetic bowl with cover made of faience is shaped like a lotus flower and has three compartments with a sliding lid.

It's the kind of thing you could imagine on a grand lady's dressing table had it been another era.

And because of the Egyptian obsession with death and afterlife, there are all kinds of objects associated with that fascinating subject.

An elaborately decorated inner coffin is done by painting plaster over wood and although there are chips in the wood, it is remarkably intact.

Of course the star of the show is the coffin of Tjeby with its mummy inside.

She and I spent much time looking at the photographs from where the coffin had been found, looking at the position of the mummy (left side looking out where the eyes were painted on the side of the coffin) and trying to understand the detailed mummification process.

A trio breezed past us, looked in the case, said, "That's cool" and moved on within about twenty seconds.

We were flabbergasted at their lack of curiosity; ours was boundless.

Equally as absorbing were the mummified animals.

Both the mummy of an ibis as well as that of a falcon had X-ray pictures of the birds inside the linen and resin, showing the animal's skeleton, underneath the actual mummies.

Corny jokes aside, it was illuminating.

After over an hour, we felt satisfied that we'd seen everything we could see and headed downstairs so my friend could check out the gift shop ("The best part of museum field trips when I was a kid," she said. Um, not to this nerdy kid it wasn't.).

While she looked around, I headed across the hall to the bathrooms near the new glass entrance.

A guard saw me and smiled.

"You know it's bad luck to come in one door and leave by another," he advised me.

He must have seen me come in through the Boulevard entrance.

"I'm not leaving," I assured him. "Don't worry."

Now can I use the facilities, sir?

"Wouldn't want you to have bad luck," he said.

Mummies, cosmetic bowls and caring guards...the VMFA always yields up unexpected pleasures.