Gilded Cartonnage Mask

Place CreatedEgypt, Africa

CultureEgyptian

PeriodPtolemaic Period

Date3rd Century BCE

MediumCartonnage, paint, gilding

Credit LineGift of the Georges Ricard Foundation

Dimensions17 15/16 x 11 7/8 x 9 3/16 in. (45.5 x 30.2 x 23.3 cm)

Object number2018.010.127

Label TextThis mask once covered the head and upper chest of the wrapped mummy. A polychrome wig frames a gilded face, with its lappets resting over an ornamented collar. Deities are painted on a dark yellow background, with details highlighted in pink, blue, and green. The wig lappets are divided into three registers with identical motifs of falcons, the mummy before the seated Osiris, and the four sons of Horus. To either side of the wig are rosettes, udjat eyes, and various geometric motifs. A pink headband encircles the wig, attached to a golden ring. At the top of the wig, a winged scarab stretches its wings over the band. At the back, the vulture goddess Nekhbet, wearing an Atef-crown, stretches out her wings over the top of the mask. On the back of the mask are the figures of Isis and Nephthys protecting the mummy.
Exhibition HistoryLife and the Afterlife: Ancient Egyptian Art from the Senusret Collection, Michael C. Carlos Museum, February 4 - August 6, 2023
Published ReferencesJacques Mercier, Jacques Velliet, and Daniel Thullier [Hotel des Ventes], Lille, Rare Ensemble d'Objets de Fouilles et d'Archeologie (29 Mai 1972), lot 9.
Rune 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 3.1.
Melinda K. Hartwig, ed., Life and The Afterlife: Ancient Egyptian Art from the Senusret Collection (Atlanta: Michael C. Carlos Museum, 2023), catalogue entry 72.

ProvenancePurchased by Georges Ricard (1921-2012) from Jacques Mercier, Jacques Velliet, and Daniel Thullier [Hotel des Ventes], Lille, France, May 29, 1972, lot 9. Ex coll. Musée de l'Égypte et le Monde Antique, Collection Sanousrit, Monaco, 1975-1982. Ex coll. Georges Ricard Foundation, Santa Barbara, California.

Status

Not on view

Collections