Ancient Egyptian Art at the Art Institute of Chicago celebrates more than three thousand years of artistic achievement in the Nile Valley. Expansive in its timeline and its range of media, this richly illustrated digital publication features more than one hundred works from the Art Institute’s collection of ancient Egyptian art. The Art Institute established its collection of Egyptian antiquities in 1890, the first of three major museum collections in Chicago—with the Field Museum of Natural History and the Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures Museum (ISAC Museum), formerly the Oriental Institute Museum, at the University of Chicago—thus playing a pivotal role in defining the city as a center for Egyptology. This online scholarly catalogue builds upon that legacy.

For millennia, Egypt has been a cradle of artistic and cultural exchange in Africa, the Mediterranean, and beyond. As a reflection of this, the Art Institute’s ancient Egyptian collection was moved to the department of the Arts of Africa in 2020 to reground it along geographic lines. Ancient Egyptian Art at the Art Institute of Chicago significantly expands the department’s presentation of works produced on the African continent during antiquity.

This online book complements Life and Afterlife in Ancient Egypt, the transformative gallery of ancient Egyptian art that debuted in 2022 and placed the Art Institute’s holdings in this area on view for the first time in a decade. Both projects were helmed by Ashley Arico, associate curator of ancient Egyptian art, who joined the Art Institute in 2017 as the first ancient Egyptian art curator on staff in the museum’s history. It is my pleasure to thank Ashley for her thoughtful oversight of the reinstallation and of this publication through its many iterations. I also extend my gratitude to the volume’s primary author, Egyptologist Emily Teeter, who has long championed the Art Institute’s collection and lent her expertise to special exhibitions, galleries, and publications prior to Ashley’s tenure. My ongoing appreciation also goes to the Mellon Foundation endowment for scholarly publishing; their support enables us to explore and expand our digital publications, which open scholarship to new and fresh formats.

This publication is the first scholarly work dedicated to the Art Institute’s core collection of Egyptian antiquities in more than a century. It also marks the launch of the museum’s newly redesigned digital publishing platform for entry-based catalogues, which makes research on our diverse collections freely accessible to a global audience. The intuitive design encourages exploration of our collection and invites readers to learn about ancient Egyptian culture through these objects, from minuscule faience amulets depicting gods and goddesses to large-scale wall reliefs representing Egyptian individuals who lived many millennia ago. In-depth scholarly research, scientific analyses, and stunning photographs combine to tell compelling stories about these artworks and the ancient people who made and used them, exploring their imagery and craftsmanship while revealing their ancient functions and cultural contexts. Underscored by a deep appreciation for these objects and this long-lived ancient North African culture, this publication reintroduces the Art Institute’s ancient Egyptian holdings to a new generation.

James Rondeau
President and Eloise W. Martin Director
The Art Institute of Chicago