Kagemni Cartonnage Leg Trapping

Possible OriginThebes, Egypt, Africa

CultureEgyptian

PeriodPtolemaic Period

Date305-30 BCE

MediumCartonnage, paint, gilding

Credit LineGift of the Georges Ricard Foundation

Dimensions14 9/16 x 4 7/16 in., 1/8 in., 150 g (37 x 11.2 cm, 0.3 cm, 5 5/16 oz.)

Object number2018.010.639

Label TextCartonnage elements such as chest and leg trappings, foot cases, and masks adorned wrapped mummies during the Ptolemaic and Roman periods. They are composed of layers of linen or papyrus, gesso, and glue that were molded, brightly painted, and often gilded. As with cartonnage masks, the essential components could vary based on shape, size, time, and place.

This cartonnage ensemble remains unfinished. Thin squares of gold foil were glued on faces, figures, and other important elements and were not trimmed back. On the central text band is the owner’s name, “Kagemni born of Ta’a,” painted in black, indicating the cartonnage was mass-produced and tailored for the purchaser. Holes in each element were used to sew them to the mummy wrappings.

The leg trapping has three registers and a central band of text. A red and blue block border separates the registers. The jackal-headed god Anubis holds the deceased’s heart on a red background. He gestures toward the mummy lying on a lion-headed bier. Gilding decorates the heart, Anubis’s head and kilt, the head of the mummy and the lion, and the bodies and heads of the four sons of Horus below the bed. The next register contains a golden scarab with painted wings rising between two golden falcon heads with sun disks. Below, a row of golden rosettes on blue ground alternate with floral friezes on yellow or red ground. A central band of raised gilt text reserves a space for Kagemni’s name and parentage and is bordered by blue and yellow lines. The leg trapping ends with a painted row of drop beads.
Exhibition HistoryLife and the Afterlife: Ancient Egyptian Art from the Senusret Collection, Michael C. Carlos Museum, February 4 - August 6, 2023
Published ReferencesRune Nyord, "The Good Burial," in Life and the Afterlife: Ancient Egyptian Art from the Senusret Collection, ed. Melinda K. Hartwig (Atlanta: Michael C. Carlos Museum, 2023), Figure 3.2.
Melinda K. Hartwig, ed., Life and The Afterlife: Ancient Egyptian Art from the Senusret Collection (Atlanta: Michael C. Carlos Museum, 2023), catalogue entry 75.

ProvenanceSaid to be ex coll. Princess Maddevi Yukanthor-Norodom. Purchased by Georges Ricard (1921-2012) from Roger Fernand Galliano, Paris, France, April 5, 1974. Ex coll. Musée de l'Égypte et le Monde Antique, Collection Sanousrit, Monaco, 1975-1982. Ex coll. Georges Ricard Foundation, Santa Barbara, California.

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Not on view

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