© Michael C. Carlos Museum, Emory University. Photo by Peter Harholdt.

ClassificationsAncient Egyptian Art

Corn Osiris Mask

Place CreatedEgypt, Africa

CultureEgyptian

PeriodLate Period

Date722-332 BCE

MediumWax, Egyptian blue pigment, gold leaf, carbon black

Credit LineEx Brummer Collection, donated by the Brummer-Laszlo Family

Dimensions8 7/8 x 4 5/16 x 2 3/4" (22.5 x 11 x 7 cm)

Object number1998.013.009 A/C

Label TextOn special feast days, figurines of the god Osiris, would be filled with mud and grain that would sprout, emphasizing the role of Osiris in bringing forth life from the earth. These evolved into a modeled figure known as a "corn Osiris." Such figures were sometimes fitted with wax masks with the face of Osiris. The wax itself was thought to have magical properties of transformation, and the gold symbolized the god's flesh. The hair on this example is colored with Egyptian blue to imitate lapis lazuli, the hair of the gods. These figures were placed in falcon-headed coffins and buried as votive offerings on feast days in cemeteries and sacred sites.
Exhibition HistoryMCCM Permanent Collection Reinstallation, October 6, 2001 - Present
Published ReferencesPeter Lacovara, "The New Galleries of Egyptian and Near Eastern Art at the Michael C. Carlos Museum," Minerva 12 (2001), 9-16.
Peter Lacovara and Betsy Teasley Trope, The Realm of Osiris (Atlanta: Michael C. Carlos Museum, 2001), 17.

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