EGYPTIAN MINIATURES

In the Egyptian Museum in Turin (proudly claimed to be the second-best in the world, after Cairo) are case after case of tiny turquoise faience beads and amulets, all beautifully arranged some years ago, with all the heady atmosphere and personality of old museums.

How wonderful are these tidy rows of miniature faience seals, their brown, neatly handwritten labels so much bigger than the objects themselves, sitting on little shelves?

And the eyes! The image of the eye is so potent - and never more so than in Egypt, with the Eye of Horus, their great protective symbol. Some of these are that symbol; others are simply eye fragments from small statues, like the blue glass eye-outline above.

Most of these objects are tiny, but they have the same heroic grandeur as the greatest monuments. Little statuettes in another case, below, are bathed in afternoon sunlight in this fascinating museum. The major part of the collection was acquired in 1824 by King Carlo Felice from Bernardino Drovetti, a Piedmontese who had served as Napoleon's Consul in Egypt. In the same year, the great Champollion worked here on the papyri, having successfully deciphered Hieroglyphics for the first time two years before, using the Rosetta Stone.