The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York is opening a new exhibition, "Divine Egypt," on October 12, 2025, featuring over 210 ancient Egyptian artifacts, including strange and surreal works like a snake with a woman's head and a scarab-shaped block of quartz diorite. Curated by Diana Craig Patch with research associate Brendan Hainline, the show focuses on approximately 25 of the 1,500 gods worshipped in ancient Egypt, presenting objects non-chronologically to highlight how divine iconographies were remixed and subverted across dynasties. Most works come from the Met's own collection, with none on loan from Egypt.
The exhibition matters because it is the Met's first large-scale Egyptian art show since 2012, and it deliberately avoids the blockbuster spectacle of past shows like the 1978 King Tut exhibition, instead offering a low-key but intellectually rich exploration of ancient Egyptian religion and art. By emphasizing the strangeness and unknowability of these ancient deities, "Divine Egypt" challenges contemporary viewers to reconsider their assumptions about ancient art and demonstrates the Met's strength in presenting focused, scholarly exhibitions that reveal the complexity of historical cultures.