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Lot Essay
No doubt inspried by Jean-Léon Gérôme, his teacher at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Frederick Arthur Bridgman made his first trip to North Africa in 1872. The following year, during the winter of 1873-74, he went to Egypt where he made extensive sketches of the people, the landscape and the architecture as well as the hieroglyphic art of the country. His observations resulted in the album sold in these rooms on 21 June 2000, lot 55 (£36,000), and were no doubt the inspiration for several of his finished archaelogical history pictures based on ancient Egyptian themes.
The first of these archaelogical pictures was The funeral of a Mummy, which was exhibited at the Salon of 1877 to marked success, it was quite different from his earlier work, and was in many ways a tribute to Gérôme. The second history picture was The Diversion of an Assyrian King, shown at the Salon of 1878 and the third was The Procession of the Sacred Bull Apis of the next Salon of 1879 which was immediately recognized as a high point of the Gérôme school.
The present work closely relates to the Salon picture of 1879. The painting was bought by the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, D.C., and was more recently sold at Sotheby's New York, 24 May 1988, lot 41 ($165,000). A study for this work was also offered in these Rooms on 17 March 1995, lot 149. The current painting probably dates from the same period as the Salon painting of 1879 but depicts the procession with a different temple backdrop and may have been an alternative composition for the picture Bridgman submitted to the Salon in 1879. The sacred Apis bull is shown with the sun-disc and the uraeus between it's horns and attended by a entourage of priests carrying the god's barge. Pharaoh leads the procession in his capacity as high priest along with his wife, followed behind by the temple priest who leads the bull. A dancer adds musical accompaniment to the proceedings.
The Apis bull in ancient Egyptian religion was considered to be the embodiment of the god Ptah, and was worshiped as a god at Ptah's temple in the city of Memphis. A particular bull-calf was identified as the god incarnated by twenty-seven specific physical characteristics, including a white triangular mark on its forehead and a cross on it's back. The Apis bull lived in great splendour in a temple specifically built to house him until he reached 25, the age when he was usually sacrificed. In death the Apis bull became assimilated to the god Osiris and was embalmed and mummified with all the ceremony accorded to a pharaoh. In life the bull was attended by the temple priests but occasionally, as the present work suggests, he was brought out for public appearances and processions, and his birthday was celebrated with a seven-day holiday.
The first of these archaelogical pictures was The funeral of a Mummy, which was exhibited at the Salon of 1877 to marked success, it was quite different from his earlier work, and was in many ways a tribute to Gérôme. The second history picture was The Diversion of an Assyrian King, shown at the Salon of 1878 and the third was The Procession of the Sacred Bull Apis of the next Salon of 1879 which was immediately recognized as a high point of the Gérôme school.
The present work closely relates to the Salon picture of 1879. The painting was bought by the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, D.C., and was more recently sold at Sotheby's New York, 24 May 1988, lot 41 ($165,000). A study for this work was also offered in these Rooms on 17 March 1995, lot 149. The current painting probably dates from the same period as the Salon painting of 1879 but depicts the procession with a different temple backdrop and may have been an alternative composition for the picture Bridgman submitted to the Salon in 1879. The sacred Apis bull is shown with the sun-disc and the uraeus between it's horns and attended by a entourage of priests carrying the god's barge. Pharaoh leads the procession in his capacity as high priest along with his wife, followed behind by the temple priest who leads the bull. A dancer adds musical accompaniment to the proceedings.
The Apis bull in ancient Egyptian religion was considered to be the embodiment of the god Ptah, and was worshiped as a god at Ptah's temple in the city of Memphis. A particular bull-calf was identified as the god incarnated by twenty-seven specific physical characteristics, including a white triangular mark on its forehead and a cross on it's back. The Apis bull lived in great splendour in a temple specifically built to house him until he reached 25, the age when he was usually sacrificed. In death the Apis bull became assimilated to the god Osiris and was embalmed and mummified with all the ceremony accorded to a pharaoh. In life the bull was attended by the temple priests but occasionally, as the present work suggests, he was brought out for public appearances and processions, and his birthday was celebrated with a seven-day holiday.