ABSTRACT
This chapter traces the different social meanings that both Egyptian objects and objects crafted to evoke Egypt reflected, reified, and helped formulate by outlining how changing sensibilities to authenticity impacted European responses to Egyptian and Egyptianizing things. The increasing globalization of the eighteenth century facilitated Western European encounters with ancient Egyptian material culture. Ancient Rome was one of the most important early loci for the recontextualization of Egyptian objects in European design; it is thus not surprising that their reappearance during the Renaissance would be part of a larger revival of ancient Roman aesthetics. Gian Lorenzo Bernini was one of the most important early figures in the reappraisal of Egyptian design for living architectural contexts. One of the most important Egypto-Roman design themes to appear in Bernini's works is the obelisk a tall, tapering structure that incorporates a small pyramid on the top of its shaft.
