This book looks at the art and material culture of Ancient Egypt in a new way – by finding out who made it and how.

The making of various kinds of Egyptian art was dictated by the different materials used: stone, ceramics, faience and glass, metalwork, jewellery, paint, linen, basketry, wood, papyrus and cartonnage. Each of these media is examined in turn, and the exquisite workmanship and knowledge of individual makers is here revealed and celebrated. The book accompanies a major exhibition at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.

Fully illustrated and full of new research, this book will appeal to enthusiasts and scholars alike. It approaches a familiar subject from a fresh angle, focusing on the artists and makers. The many scholars involved also reveal their personal appreciation and understanding of the different media that they have studied or, frequently, restored, seeking to get to the heart of the methods of the ancient craftsmen, whose work they
have learned to respect and admire. These scholars have been aided, of course, by modern technology, which gives a holistic analysis of these objects that are now some 4,000 years old but which can now often be ‘read’ very nearly in their entirety. Almost 100 different objects are presented and discussed for their typical or unusual features. Besides the editor’s introduction, there is an essay on the difficulties of talking about individual artists in Ancient Egypt by Alessio delli Castelli and Dimitri Laboury, and conversations with contemporary makers working with the same materials today in much the same way as artists would have done in Ancient Egypt.

Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge
3 October 2025 – 25 January 2026

Published by Paul Holberton Publishing