.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
The gilt face of the deceased is depicted with painted brows, extended eyeline and eyes, while wearing an elaborate headdress moulded in stucco and gilt, with a band of rosettes, central sun-disc flanked by uraei, vulture wings spread either side, and a band of uraei wearing sun-discs. The headdress is surmounted by a gilt Horus falcon in relief surrounded by a row of papyrus painted in polychrome over gesso, with rows of animal-headed deities holding the was sceptre surmounted by a row of uraei at the back, and rows of seated deities at either side of the face.
The ancient Egyptians believed that for the ank (transfigured spirit) of the deceased to live happily in the afterlife, it should forever be bound to a representation of the physical body. The mummified body provided this role; however, to guarantee against any threat to this fundamental connection due to accidental destruction of the mummy, a substitute body in the form of a statue or coffin could be provided. True embalming began in about 2600 B.C., with the extraction of the organs, and reached the height of its technique in about 1000 B.C. The brain was removed and discarded, while the principal organs of the body cavity (lungs, liver, heart and stomach) were kept separately in canopic jars or boxes. The limbs and skin were padded out, false eyes and hair were added, all to make the deceased appear as true to life as possible. The wrapped mummy would be placed in one or multiple coffins of various shapes, materials and styles, depending on the fashions of the time. Cartonnage masks, providing a highly stylized image of the deceased, were first used in the First Intermediate Period (c. 2160-2025 B.C.), with gilded faces becoming popular in the Second Intermediate Period (c. 1700-1550 B.C.). Their inclusion in the burial trappings fell out of practice in the Twenty-First Dynasty only to reappear in the Late Period and Ptolemaic Period, alongside pectorals and foot bases made from the same material and attached to the outer wrappings.
The use of the colour gold in Egyptian funerary art derives from the wish of the deceased to be associated with Osiris, the god of rebirth, whose flesh was thought to be of gold. In Ptolemaic and Roman Egypt it was commonplace for the mummified body, before bandaging, to have the face, chest and nails decorated with gold leaf. The magical properties of gold were written about in an Egyptian funerary text reading "the radiation of Light reaches you, she who if truly the divine body of Osiris. Gold will illuminate your face in the world between, you will come forth because of gold".
For a similar mask see inv. no. 1917.12 in the Bowdoin College Museum of Art, and H. Froschauer & H. Harrauer, Tod am Nil, Totenkult im antiken Ägypten, 2003, pp. 86-88 n°4, ill. cover.
Also see pp. 32-34, nos 3-5 in S. Walker and M. Bierbrier, Ancient Faces, Mummy Portraits From Roman Egypt, London, 1997 for mummy cases with similar rosette head bands.
The ancient Egyptians believed that for the ank (transfigured spirit) of the deceased to live happily in the afterlife, it should forever be bound to a representation of the physical body. The mummified body provided this role; however, to guarantee against any threat to this fundamental connection due to accidental destruction of the mummy, a substitute body in the form of a statue or coffin could be provided. True embalming began in about 2600 B.C., with the extraction of the organs, and reached the height of its technique in about 1000 B.C. The brain was removed and discarded, while the principal organs of the body cavity (lungs, liver, heart and stomach) were kept separately in canopic jars or boxes. The limbs and skin were padded out, false eyes and hair were added, all to make the deceased appear as true to life as possible. The wrapped mummy would be placed in one or multiple coffins of various shapes, materials and styles, depending on the fashions of the time. Cartonnage masks, providing a highly stylized image of the deceased, were first used in the First Intermediate Period (c. 2160-2025 B.C.), with gilded faces becoming popular in the Second Intermediate Period (c. 1700-1550 B.C.). Their inclusion in the burial trappings fell out of practice in the Twenty-First Dynasty only to reappear in the Late Period and Ptolemaic Period, alongside pectorals and foot bases made from the same material and attached to the outer wrappings.
The use of the colour gold in Egyptian funerary art derives from the wish of the deceased to be associated with Osiris, the god of rebirth, whose flesh was thought to be of gold. In Ptolemaic and Roman Egypt it was commonplace for the mummified body, before bandaging, to have the face, chest and nails decorated with gold leaf. The magical properties of gold were written about in an Egyptian funerary text reading "the radiation of Light reaches you, she who if truly the divine body of Osiris. Gold will illuminate your face in the world between, you will come forth because of gold".
For a similar mask see inv. no. 1917.12 in the Bowdoin College Museum of Art, and H. Froschauer & H. Harrauer, Tod am Nil, Totenkult im antiken Ägypten, 2003, pp. 86-88 n°4, ill. cover.
Also see pp. 32-34, nos 3-5 in S. Walker and M. Bierbrier, Ancient Faces, Mummy Portraits From Roman Egypt, London, 1997 for mummy cases with similar rosette head bands.