Canadian Egyptologist - Valérie Angenot

Valérie Angenot was a post-doctoral instructor at the University of Toronto when I was doing my PhD. I was a TA for one of her Egyptian art classes. She has a fascinating way of looking at Egyptian art and communicating it to students. I was always impressed by her diligent approach to her work. I reached out to Valérie to conduct an interview, as I wanted to profile her as my next Canadian Egyptologist.

Valérie’s current position is as a professor for the Art History Department, at the University of Quebec (professeure, Faculté des arts, Département d’Histoire de l’art, Université du Québec à Montréal) (UQAM).[1]

Following are Valérie’s responses to my questions. Footnotes and links were added by me.

Valérie at the National Museum of Alexandria.

Can you tell me a bit about yourself – where you grew up, etc.?

I was born in Montreal and spent the first two years of my life in the city of Lorraine. My father was a professor of Comparative Literature at McGill University. When my parents divorced, I moved to Belgium with my mother and brother. Every year, I used to spend summer in Canada with my father.

What started your interest in Egypt?

When I was 10, my mother took a trip to Egypt and brought back lots of photos and some souvenirs. We started attending lectures about Egypt in Belgium (where no fewer than 5 universities offer courses in Egyptology). From there, in my spare time, I began to fill notebooks, illustrated with the various bits of information I could glean from books, magazines, documentaries and lectures. I remember one in particular, about Tutankhamun. When I got home, I reproduced from memory the plan of his tomb, which turned out to be pretty accurate. The following summer, my father got me Champollion's grammar book from the McGill library and, as Champollion transcribed the hieroglyphs into Coptic, I started learning Coptic along with the hieroglyphs. At the start of the school year, in 5th grade of Primary school, I gave a talk on Egyptian hieroglyphs to the class. The Egyptology adventure had begun...

What is your academic background?

As I was sure that I wanted to become an Egyptologist, I enrolled in a Latin-Greek High school program at the age of 12, at the Lycée Léonie de Waha in Liège.

I then obtained a double degree in “Art History and Archaeology” and “Oriental Philology and History” from the University of Brussels (l'Université Libre de Bruxelles - ULB). I studied Egyptian, Mesopotamian, Persian, Roman and Etruscan arts, and the different stages of the ancient Egyptian language, Akkadian, Old Persian, Sanskrit and Hebrew, as well as Latin and Greek, which I studied in greater depth at university, particularly through the study of texts by Plato and Plotinus, which were going to influence my Egyptological research later on. At the time, ULB offered the best Egyptology program in Belgium, with 6 professors teaching in various artistic, philological and religious fields. Although my passion for Egypt had begun with writing, by the age of 18 it was art that had my full attention. During my studies, I was able to combine these two interests thanks to visual semiotics.[2] Two of my teachers at ULB, Roland Tefnin[3] and Philippe Derchain[4], were already using the methodological tools of this emerging discipline, heir to the structuralism of the 1960s, and had shown us the advantages of using these tools in their courses.

The figurehead of visual semiotics in Belgium was the Groupe µ, based in Liège. It turns out that one of its eminent representatives, Jean-Marie Klinkenberg,[5] had come to give several seminars at ULB, which I followed with great interest. I later learned that semiotics was already running a little through my veins, as my father had published Critique de la raison sémiotique [6] a few years earlier, a book in which he specifically questioned the application of the Saussurian semiotic model to visual semiotics, highlighting the dissensions among scholars in this young sub-discipline. Later, when I arrived at UQAM and immersed myself in teaching semiotics, I could only agree with him and see the relevance of his criticism: Saussurean semiotics is ill-suited to the study of images. On the other hand, it was possible to do something with Peircean semiotics,[7] which I did later.

After my studies, I did three post-doctorates: one in Egyptology at the University of Toronto under Ronald Leprohon,[8] another with John Baines [9] at Oxford University, and a post-doc in semiotics with Jean-Marie Klinkenberg at the University of Liège. I also tried my hand at 3D modelling with Robert Vergnieux at the Institut Ausonius (Université Bordeaux 3), but that experience didn't last long. I quickly came up against the power plays of Belgian-French Egyptology and had to abandon this project, in which I had invested a great deal, under pressure from certain colleagues who took a dim view of my arrival in the field.

Nevertheless, drawing from this experience, including that in digital humanities, I was finally hired as a professor in the History of Art Department at the Université du Québec à Montréal. Under the impetus of Fernande Saint-Martin,[10] this university had also built up considerable expertise and an international reputation in visual semiotics between 1990 and 2000. And it was precisely on her former position in the semiotics of art that I was hired. My specialization in Egyptology was a plus, as my colleagues' qualifications ranged from the Middle Ages to contemporary art, and there was no one to teach ancient art in the department. At UQAM, my colleague Jean Revez,[11] in the History department, and I expanded the range of Egyptology courses available to students. I taught the arts of Egypt and Mesopotamia, as well as the semiotics of art. I have also invested a great deal in the Interdisciplinary PhD programme in Semiotic Studies (DIES),[12] of which I became director in 2022. Today, the department has developed a general course on the Antiquities of the Mediterranean and the Near East, which should soon be included in the programme, and in which I will be focusing on Egypt.

Please tell me about your digs/trips to Egypt? Related museum work…

I took my first trip to Egypt when I was 18, as a graduation trip. I had promised to work in a supermarket all summer to pay it off. But they put me in… the butcher's department, even though I was a vegetarian. It was difficult, as you can imagine, but I had no choice. Against all the odds, this job kind of won me the Bourse de la Vocation, as the jury had been moved by my abnegation in pursuing my passion.

Thereafter, I accompanied Roland Tefnin every year on his excavations in the Theban necropolis, until his death in 2006. It was there that I really discovered Egyptian painting, and gained a better understanding of the funerary system and the workings of the decorative programme in the tombs, their pictorial praxis and all the mechanisms for producing meaning that it implies. I discovered a semiotic system that not only appealed to the visitor's gaze during celebrations such as the Beautiful Festival of the Valley,[13] but also implied a deceased-image within the image and even involved cosmic movements in the regenerative machine of the tomb. This world view was new to me and became the subject of my master's and doctoral theses.

During a doctoral research trip to Egypt, I met Alain Zivie [14] at Saqqara. This was the start of a new adventure as an epigraphist,[15] which was slowly leading me down the path of Amarna studies. The site of the Bubasteion, which he had been excavating for many years, had been selected by prominent figures from the peri-Amarna period as their final resting place. The hill of Ankhtawy contained the tombs of the painter Thoutmes, who worked for Amenhotep III/Amenhotep IV, Akhenaten's vizier, Aper-El, the scribe of the treasury of the Temple of Aten in the Memphite Horizon of Aten, Raïay-Hatiay, and Tutankhamun's wetnurse, Maïa.

During my post-doc in Toronto in 2005-2007, I was confronted with a different way of looking at the Egyptian image. It was considered there as sufficiently realistic to allow medical diagnoses to be made of Akhenaten's statues. This went against everything Roland Tefnin had taught me at ULB. Drawing from my classical studies and notably texts of Plato, Plotinus and Tzetzes, as well as Panofsky's work on symbolic perspective, I proposed a re-reading of the “portraits” of Akhenaten —based on a symbolic crystallisation of the correction of parallax in the king's face— which I have recently extended to his corporality, characterised by Gestaltian puns translating his divine solar incarnation. In 2008, I also proposed, on the basis of an interpretation of the texts from the tomb of Raïay-Hatiay and using semiotic tools, that there had been a Horizon of Aten at Memphis, contemporary with that at Tell el-Amarna. This idea went against the prevailing hypotheses at the time, but has since been confirmed by new toponymic studies.

Since moving to Canada, I no longer work in the field, but I still travel regularly to Egypt to study museum pieces that are useful for my research. A project to restore objects from the Bubasteion excavation was initiated with the Imhotep Museum at Saqqara, and I have collaborated in the study of various artefacts from the Musées Royaux d’Art et d’Histoire in Brussels and the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.

Was there someone who influenced you greatly as an Egyptologist? Who? Why?

The greatest influence for me in Egyptology remains Roland Tefnin. My other two masters, Philipe Derchain and Jean-Marie Kruchten,[16] certainly had a major influence on my work —and their words still sometimes echo in my head today— but it was Roland Tefnin who had the most lasting impact on the Egyptologist I became. He was a unique figure in the world of Egyptology, as much for his original approach to works of art as for his profound humanism, his kindness, but also his poetry and eloquence. His classrooms were always packed; one had to sit on the steps of the auditorium and even sometimes in the corridor to follow his courses, because his oratorical verve attracted an important external audience. It was he who introduced me to the methodological arsenal of visual semiotics, which was decisive for my career. In my opinion, he revolutionized Egyptology and dismantled certain preconceived ideas that the first Egyptologists, heirs to classical philology, had imposed on the discipline. His analyses are often strokes of genius, and they provide such (more) convincing and rational explanations for the study of certain corpuses. In my opinion, he has been underrated by Egyptology, and he was well aware of this when he was alive. I remember one museum visit when he showed me that the magical heads from Giza were still labelled ‘reserve heads’, putting forward the theory of plaster casts to explain the cranial incisions they characterized them. He shook his head sadly, even though he had brilliantly refuted this improbable hypothesis some fifteen years earlier, recognizing far more convincing evidence of ritual killing of images. I am proud to be following in his footsteps today, and I share with him a certain disillusionment at Egyptology's reluctance to stray from the beaten track and validate the fruit of more original approaches that are no less likely to advance science.

One day I was complaining to Marc Gabolde [17] about the resistance of colleagues to admitting the existence of a Horizon of Aten at Memphis. Marc replied, ‘Genius ideas take two or three years to be accepted’. I found him a little optimistic that day, but left comforted by the thought that perhaps one day some of my contested ideas or approaches would eventually be accepted. Over the last few years, since my “entry” into Amarna studies, Marc Gabolde has also been a great influence on me, for reasons somewhat similar to those that drew my admiration to Roland Tefnin. In addition to his unfailing erudition and his acritical knowledge and exploitation of the smallest details, he does not hesitate to go against the grain or to challenge perceived ideas with his fine analyses and his fresh perspective on the Egyptological corpus. He is also, as Roland Tefnin was, a person of rare benevolence, always eager to share his knowledge with generosity - even when someone has a different opinion from his own. Life hasn't always put this kind of person in my path, but I'm happy to have crossed paths with these two. I've just spent a sabbatical year in Montpellier, which was certainly enriched by our many exchanges with Marc, in particular, as well as with other colleagues at Égypte Nilotique et Méditerranéenne (ÉNiM).

What is the most memorable place you visited in Egypt? Why?

When I was a child, I cut out images of Ramose's tomb at Gurna (TT 55) from a magazine and hanged them on the walls of my bedroom. From the age of 10 to 18, I could only fantasize about Egypt through these indirect visual witnesses. And in my adolescent mind, the multitude of images that covered the walls of tombs and temples must have had the finesse and elegance of Ramose's reliefs. I was to be somewhat disappointed, but it was through them that my interest in Egypt first surreptitiously slipped from writing to art. I was fascinated by these images, so my love affair with Egyptian art was first of all aesthetic before becoming semiotic. Visiting Ramose's tomb for the first time was therefore a great moment, and the wonder was doubled by the presence of the beginnings of Atonist art that I discovered on its walls.

*Mereruka vizier's funeral statue in front of his false door at his Saqqara tomb*

By HoremWeb - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0

The mastaba of Mereruka had a similar effect on me. In a book on Egyptian art in my bookcase, there was a magnificent view of his statue in its niche, taken from an angle that encompassed part of the adjacent walls. It was a mysterious image that fed my childhood imagination. I even said to myself, "See that and die!" Fortunately, that didn't happen and I have been able to discover many other wonders since then!

What impressed me most afterwards, this time on archaeological digs, was discovering the infinite meanders of the underground parts of the tomb of Aper-El at Saqqara and those of Djehutymes at el-Khokha (TT 32). Another memorable moment was being the first to penetrate a satellite pyramid of the funerary complex of Pepi I at Saqqara, then being excavated by Audran Labrousse.[18] The remains of the pyramid had just been discovered and the Egyptian workers on the dig were very reluctant to enter a tomb that had been closed for 4,300 years. So they did me the honour of offering me first entry. I slipped into the burial chamber with my arms outstretched, head forward, on my back, through the narrow opening dug by looters in ancient times.

All these memories come from the funerary register, which was the focus of my first research. Then of course came the thrill of setting foot in Tell el-Amarna for the first time and establishing a real polysensory contact with its monuments —once again essentially tombs— which until then I had known only from black-and-white photos and line drawings.

Do you have any upcoming trips? Digs? Research work?

I recently returned from a research trip to Egypt, to visit museums and collect photos of artefacts that would be useful for my research. Publishing images has become so difficult and expensive these days! I have no immediate plans to take part in an excavation, as preparing and presenting my courses leaves me little time for rest. Eventually, though, I'd like to be able to work at Tell el-Amarna one day.

Is there anything you would like to add… (upcoming publications, courses, etc.)?

It seems to me that a word could be said about the direction of my research, which has not yet been raised.

When I was in my first year at university, and the time came to choose my first essay topic in Egyptian art, Roland Tefnin begged us not to all choose an Amarna theme. I chose a Middle Kingdom subject; for my master's thesis, a subject on the mastabas of the Old Kingdom; and for my doctoral thesis, the question of visuality in Theban tombs of the New Kingdom, with a semiotic and hermeneutic approach to the so-called “daily life scenes”. For all those years, I kept this warning in mind, until my epigraphic work in the tombs of the Bubasteion and my post-doctorate at UofT brought me to Tell el-Amarna. After a course on intericonicity in art, that I gave at UQAM, I recently returned to it in an unexpected way, and started to tackle the testimonies of the reign of queen-pharaoh Neferneferuaten, on whose publication I am currently working.

I am also working on other projects in Egyptology, semiotics and art. Over the last few years, as director of the DIES (doctorate in semiotics), I have been developing a new semiotic theory based on Peirce and the study of Egyptian vocabulary and writing, through the study of cognitive tropes, which could account for all the signs produced in our sensitive world. This research follows on from my post-doctorate at Oxford on visual tropes. I am also working on an eye-tracking project on Egyptian images at UQAM, a practical application of my post-doctorate in Toronto on the vectorialities (reading patterns) of funerary images. I am editing a book on sexual hermeneutics in works of art from prehistory to the present day, which is an extension of my work on Egyptian hermeneutics. Finally, I am working on the publication of a theory I recently proposed on the nature of the so-called “determinatives” or “classifiers”, which I identify with the Universals that were at the heart of semiotic debates and disputes from Antiquity to the Middle Ages. With the publication of the corpus of works attributable to the reign of Neferneferuaten, there's a lot of work to be done, and plenty to keep me busy for the next few years...

TT 29 - Tomb of Amenemipet called Pairy

View of Giza pyramids from Mena House

Valérie in Saqqara

I wish to thank Valérie for her participation in this blog posting. She is an example of an Egyptologist finding a unique niche with her studies. Best of luck with all the work you have ahead. It was truly lovely catching up and learning more about your career.

[1] Valérie Angenot - https://professeurs.uqam.ca/professeur/angenot.valerie/ ; LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/val%C3%A9rie-angenot-23611621/ ; You can read much of her work on Academia - https://uqam.academia.edu/Val%C3%A9rieAngenot

[2] visual semiotics - is “a philosophical approach that seeks to interpret messages in terms of signs and patterns of symbolism.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_semiotics

[3] Roland Tefnin, Egyptologist (1946-2006) - https://www.meretsegerbooks.com/pages/author/4054/tefnin-roland/?orderBy=

[4] Philippe Derchain (1926-2012) - https://www.meretsegerbooks.com/pages/author/3846/derchain-philippe/?orderBy=

[5] Jean-Marie Klinkenberg - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Marie_Klinkenberg

[6] Angenot, Marc (1985) Critique de la raison sémiotique. Fragment avec pin up. Montréal: Les Presses de l’Université de Montréal.

[7] Peirce’s Theory of Signs - https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/peirce-semiotics/

[8] Ron Leprohon - https://www.nmc.utoronto.ca/people/directories/all-faculty/ronald-j-leprohon

[9] John Baines - https://www.ames.ox.ac.uk/people/john-baines

[10] Fernande Saint-Martin - https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/fernande-saint-martin

[11] Jean Revez - https://professeurs.uqam.ca/professeur/revez.jean/

[12] Doctorat interdisciplinaire en études sémiotiques (DIES) - https://doctorat-semiotiques.uqam.ca/le-programme/historique/

[13] Beautiful Festival of the Valley - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beautiful_Festival_of_the_Valley

[14] Alain-Pierre Zivie - https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alain-Pierre_Zivie