Coffin Board of a Woman

Possible OriginThebes, Egypt, Africa

CultureEgyptian

PeriodThird Intermediate Period, Dynasty 22 - Late Period, Dynasty 25

Date943-655 BCE

MediumWood, gesso, paint

Credit LineGift of the Georges Ricard Foundation

Dimensions29 1/8 x 19 11/16 in. (74 x 50 cm)

Object number2018.010.410

Label TextThe upper part of a coffin board depicts a woman wearing a vulture headdress over a blue and yellow striped tripartite wig. Above her forehead is a black-winged scarab pushing a yellow orb. Her face is pale yellow, with eyes and eyebrows painted black. A beaded collar adorns her neck, and her two fists emerge from her wrappings. Between her hands is a column of text surmounted by the jackal god Anubis, holding his insignia. The single column of yellow-painted hieroglyphs gives the typical htp-di-nsw (“a gift that the king gives”) offering formula. The lower part of the coffin board with the owner’s name and titles was cut off.

Similar coffin lids were found in the Memphite region, particularly in the Faiyum. The woman’s vulture headdress, once the insignia of royalty and goddesses, began to appear on coffins of priestesses and high-ranking women in the Third Intermediate period. The feathers, blue stripes, and headdress are painted in Egyptian blue. The wig’s end bands and column texts are colored with yellow orpiment (an arsenic sulfide). Egyptian blue and orpiment are composed of coarsely ground crystalline particles that give the surface luminous and sparkling visual energy. In particular, the visual energy of Egyptian blue may have acted as a catalyst to bestow life to the coffin and the mummy within.
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, Cannes, Archeologie Objets de Fouilles (2 Octobre 1976), lot 134.
Melinda K. Hartwig, ed., Life and The Afterlife: Ancient Egyptian Art from the Senusret Collection (Atlanta: Michael C. Carlos Museum, 2023), catalogue entry 69.

ProvenancePurchased by S.A.M. Sanousrit from Hotel des Ventes, Cannes, France, October 2, 1976, lot 134. 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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