The Rosetta Stone as metaphor: language, decipherment and translation through time

It has been way too long since I have written here having been very distracted by the world – covid, politics, wars to name a few – and personal events related to family and friends. Feeling isolated like everyone else. Fortunately books, especially books made by artists, offer an oasis as it is soothing to take time to read, look and think. You are invited to come along with me and look at about some very fine books that will hopefully take us to another place in time and thought.

I am excited by my next exhibition project that will focus on the work of contemporary book artists who are engaged with languages including traditional and non-traditional. Language, decipherment and translation are themes that resonate through art, and I have been looking at these topics through historical and contemporary works that speak to these themes. The selection of this topic is timed to mark the 200th anniversary of the decipherment of the Rosetta Stone  opening the door to the language spoken by the Ancient Egyptians as well as the process of understanding languages recorded over time by different cultures.

Prior to 1822 there were many attempts at deciphering hieroglyphs found on the Rosetta Stone as well as on other cultural artifacts. The Rosetta Stone, an inscribed black stone stela with hieroglyphic, demotic and Greek inscriptions, was “discovered” by Napoleon’s expedition to Egypt at el-Rashid (Rosetta) on the Nile Delta in June 1799. Realizing its potential importance, the stone was sent by the French Expedition to Alexandria for further examination where casts and copies were made. The stone was later seized by the British and the artefact eventually found a home in the British Museum in London. Additional copies were made of the Rosetta Stone by Nicolas-Jacques Conte and distributed to scholars working in Europe. For more on this story about making copies see this link. Images of the Rosetta Stone were first published in the Description de l’egypte, documenting the findings of the Institut d’Egypte founded by Napoleon Bonaparte to record all that was encountered during an expedition that he led to Egypt in 1798. While the expedition’s chief aim was military, it also had the purpose to collect scientific and historical information about Egypt. Along with a legion of soldiers, more than 160 artists, scientists and scholars traveled to Egypt under the auspices of the Commission of the Sciences of the Sciences and Arts of Egypt. In 1802, Napoleon ordered the French Imperial Press to begin publishing a visual record of what they saw.

 Results of their research were first published in serial form from 1809 to 1828 entitled The Description of Egypt, or a Collection of Observations and Research that was made in Egypt during the Expedition of the French Army, the outcome of a 20-year effort of approximately 2,000 artists, cartographers, engravers and typographers. The volumes included over 900 hand colored copperplate engravings and over 3,000 illustrations representing a range of topics from, antiquity, botany to geography. The multi-volume series was produced in three sections: antiquities, natural history and the modern state and brought international attention to the study of Egypt’s early history. The first edition proved so popular that a second edition, known as the Panckoucke edition named after the editor, was published from 1821-1829.

For many scholars the most enduring value of this work are the illustrations known for their fidelity and aesthetic value. Indeed the illustrations of the Rosetta Stone in this publication were copied and distributed to those attempting to decipher the hieroglyphs that were found on this artifact which adds another dimension to the historic value of the illustrations in the Description. I have had the welcome opportunity to view each page of the second edition that is held by the Brooklyn Museum’s Wilbour Library of Egyptology which is a wonderful visual experience, some pages can be found here.

The decipherment of the hieroglyphs on the Rosetta Stone was announced by Jean-Francois Champollion (1790-1832) in his Lettre a M. Dacier dated 1822. Champollion’s major achievement, built on his own scholarship and others including Thomas Young (1773-1829), had international ramifications as it opened the door to understanding language. Champollion followed the announcement with his more thorough publication entitled Précis du système hiéroglyphique des anciens Egyptiens … published in 1824 presenting his findings on “hieroglyphic, figurative, ideographic and alphabetic” systems. I plan to exhibit a copy of this longer illustrated thesis at an upcoming members exhibition on language, decipherment and translation scheduled to be held at the Grolier Club in 2024 and possibly other venues.

The exhibition will include a few key historic works along with several books and prints by contemporary artists who have touched upon language, decipherment and translation in their artistic practice. Joseph Kosuth is one example of an artist who has been drawn to the Rosetta Stone as he has created language-based works since the 1960s. Kosuth, one of the pioneers of conceptual art and installation art, created a facsimile of the Rosetta stone for an installation in 1991 at the Champollion Museum in France. Kosuth’s work, in addition to several other artists, exemplifies a longstanding interest in language and art and the mission to unravel myths concerning translation and decipherment. 

Going forward I will be focusing on more books - historic and contemporary - that feature language, decipherment and translation and the artists who have engaged with these topics through time …