Courtesy of the Georges Ricard Foundation and the California Institute of World Archaeology

ClassificationsAncient Egyptian Art

Head from a Coffin Lid

Place CreatedFaiyum, Egypt, Africa

CultureEgyptian

PeriodLate Period, Dynasty 25

Date722-655 BCE

MediumWood, gesso, paint, varnish, bronze, glass

Credit LineGift of the Georges Ricard Foundation

Dimensions18 x 12 3/16 x 4 3/4 in. (45.7 x 31 x 12 cm)

Object number2018.010.420

Label TextThis head of an inner mummiform coffin lid is typical of body containers found in cemeteries in and around the Faiyum. The deceased wears a blue tripartite wig with yellow stripes and a blue and yellow plaited beard. The coffin’s face is green, associating the coffin owner with the god Osiris, who ruled the underworld and vegetation. The eyes are inlaid with white and black glass. The eyebrows and cosmetic lines are highlighted in bronze. Only three upper strands of the broad collar remain around the neck. On the far right are the remains of two rows belonging to a polychrome collar. The upper torso of the anthropoid coffin is painted white. Yellow varnish was brushed on the coffin’s face, neck, wig, and beard, perhaps to confer divinity on the deceased to make them ready for the next life.
Exhibition HistoryLife and the Afterlife: Ancient Egyptian Art from the Senusret Collection, Michael C. Carlos Museum, February 4 - August 6, 2023
Published ReferencesHotel des Ventes du Prado, Marseille, Monnaies-Archeologie Objets de Fouilles (31 Mars 1973), lot 193.
Melinda K. Hartwig, ed., Life and The Afterlife: Ancient Egyptian Art from the Senusret Collection (Atlanta: Michael C. Carlos Museum, 2023), catalogue entry 71.

ProvenancePurchased by Georges Ricard (1921-2012) from Hotel des Ventes du Prado, Marseille, France, March 31, 1973, lot 193. 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