Head from a Coffin Lid

Place CreatedEgypt, Africa

CultureEgyptian

PeriodLate Period, Dynasty 25

Dateca. 722-655 BCE

MediumWood, gesso, paint, varnish, stone

Credit LineGift of the Georges Ricard Foundation

Dimensions26 3/4 x 17 11/16 in. (68 x 45 cm)

Object number2018.010.419

Label TextDynasty 25 coffins from cemeteries around the mouth of the Faiyum consciously copy mummy-shaped coffins from the Middle Kingdom. This practice is known as archaism, a deliberate attempt to copy earlier styles associated with a specific historical period. When the Nubians ruled Egypt in Dynasty 25, artists modeled coffins based on earlier anthropoid coffins to ally themselves with Egypt’s great past. This was not slavish copying of Middle Kingdom surface decoration with text bands and textile design. Instead, Dynasty 25 coffins embraced the anthropomorphic form but colored them white to emulate mummy shrouds.

This coffin bust once belonged to a mummiform inner coffin. The face is painted green, with black and white eyes, a blue wig, and a blue plaited beard. Around the neck is a nine-strand polychrome necklace ending in red, blue, and green drop beads. The green face, upturned beard, and white shroud associated the owner with Osiris, the deity who oversaw the fertility of crops and eternal life. The figure’s glass eyes are arresting, accentuated by bronze cosmetic lines and eyebrows. In its original state, the gleaming bronze would have imbued the face with vitality and 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 Chevau-Legers, Versailles, Monnaies Anciennes-Archeologie (10 Fevrier 1974), lot 122.
Renee Stein, et al., "Reconciling Restoration," in Life and the Afterlife: Ancient Egyptian Art from the Senusret Collection, ed. Melinda K. Hartwig (Atlanta: Michael C. Carlos Museum, 2023), Figure 5.4.
Melinda K. Hartwig, ed., Life and The Afterlife: Ancient Egyptian Art from the Senusret Collection (Atlanta: Michael C. Carlos Museum, 2023), catalogue entry 70.

ProvenancePurchased by Georges Ricard (1921-2012) from Hotel des Chevau-Legers, Versailles France, February 10, 1974, lot 122. 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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