Museum collection

The collection of maquettes is conserved at Museo Egizio di Torino. A part of it is accessible in the museum exhibit; another part is kept in the museum depots. The collection includes 15 objects: temples, portals, propylaea and an obelisk. The models of the temple of Beit el-Wali, Tafa South and a part of the temple of Dakka are exhibited in the Temple of Ellesiya/Nubian Room. The models of the smaller Abu Simbel temple, Abu Oda, a part of Dakka with its propilea, Debod with its portals, El-Hilla, Gherf Hussein, Tafa North and the obelisk of Heliopolis are stored in different parts of the museum depots. The model of the temple of Maharraqa is not accessile so far. Its presence has been registered as part of the collection from its arrive in Italy until 1967, at the Pirelli Exhibition in Milan.

The collection ‘exploration models of Egyptian architectures’ arrived in Turin by the end of 1823, together with other small objects from Bernardino Drovetti’s expedition in Egypt and Nubia. Their arrival in Italy is registered several years before as said by a report of the historian Vivoli, cited by Elda Bresciani in La Piramide e la torre: due secoli di archeologia egiziana. Pacini, Pisa 2000, 20: ‘la raccolta è accuratamente descritta, si parla anche dei modelli in rilievo di legno incerato degli edifici egiziani che non potevano trasportarsi, e si dice che è frutto delle fatiche di sedici anni del console francese in Alessandria Signor Drovet (sic)’. In the XIX century, the models were exhibited in the museum rooms at the ground floor. In the following years, they were moved several times until their recent displacement to the depots.

Timeline of the collection’s relocations: from Egypt to the online collection

The wooden stucco-covered models were assembled with different pieces of waste wood, fixed with wax or nailed. They were an effort to represent a culture still not well known in Europe. Each model gives idea of the architecture features and proportions of the Egyptian monuments. Considering their poor accuracy and their conservation state during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, their value lies in the whole collection. The models, together with several drawings by J.J. Rifaud, sculptor within Drovetti’s entourage, contributes to the documentation of an Egyptian heritage disappeared in the second half of the XX c.

Who is the author of the models?

Several details about events and consistence of the collection have been subjects of debate for long time. The paternity of the models is still to define for sure. Several studies give documentation and interpretation about the models’ attribution to different artists, among which there are Franz Christian Gau and Jean-Jacques Rifaud. During B.A.C.K. TO. T.H.E. F.U.T.U.R.E. investigations, experts found several documents that, for the first time, refers directly to this collection of models. In particular, an handwritten letter by Rifaud, never sent to Bernardino Drovetti reports ‘[…] avendomi ordinato di fare dalla prima fino alla seconda cataratta tutti i templi che si trovano a est e a ovest delle due rive […]’ and cites Turin as destination of the collection. Drovetti commissioned the job to Rifaud, but within the document, there is a reference to another artist, probably in charge by the said sculptor for the execution of the models.

J.J. Rifaud. Handwritten letter. Bibliothèque de Genève.

The historical investigation has been carried on through digital archives and through documentation conserved at the following archives: ASTo, Archivio di Stato di Torino, Sezione Corte, Archivio dell’Accademia delle Scienze, Torino, Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici del Piemonte e del Museo Antichità Egizie, Torino, Bibliothèque de Genève-Papiers Jean-Jacques Rifaud.

Museum collection

Timeline of the collection’s relocations: from Egypt to the online collection

Who is the author of the models?

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