the dead called to judgement

Every age and every culture has its own ideas about death. In ‘The Dead Called to Judgement’ we place the notions about death held by the ancient Egyptians in the perspective of the later Christian and Islamic ideas. Tinker was commissioned to create the draft design for this exhibition and produced the graphical elaboration of this, based on which the Allard Pierson Museum completed the work.

Visitors to the exhibition follow in the steps of the dead Egyptians, through the divine court, where no less than 42 gods sit in judgement, passed monsters and a perilous journey through the underworld, eventually reaching the eternal reed lands. The Egyptians depicted each stage of the journey on papyrus in the Book of the Dead. The images portraying the severe divine judges therefore take centre stage in this exhibition.