AN EGYPTIAN GILT WOOD WADJET-EYE PLAQUE

THIRD INTERMEDIATE PERIOD, DYNASTY XXI, 1070-945 B.C.

Details

AN EGYPTIAN GILT WOOD WADJET-EYE PLAQUE
THIRD INTERMEDIATE PERIOD, DYNASTY XXI, 1070-945 B.C.
Rectangular in form, sculpted in raised relief with the "Eye of Horus," the surface coated with gesso and embellished with thin gold foil
5 in. (12.7 cm.) wide

Provenance

Anthony J. Drexel, Jr. Collection, assembled in the late 19th century by Emil Brugsch of the Cairo Museum and the Egyptian Antiquities Organization.
Drexel Institute, Philadelphia, 1895.
Minneapolis Institute of Arts, 1916.
with Superior Galleries, Los Angeles, 1975.

Literature

G.D. Scott, III, Exhibition catalogue, Temple, Tomb and Dwelling: Egyptian Antiquities from the Harer Family Trust Collection, San Bernardino, 1992, no. 133, pp. 184-185.

Exhibited

Los Angeles County Museum of Art, periodically between 1986-1991.
Miami, South Florida Science Museum and elsewhere, Imhotep's Egypt, The Dawn of Technology, 8 January-30 March 1989.
University Art Gallery, California State University, San Bernardino and elsewhere, Temple, Tomb and Dwelling: Egyptian Antiquities from the Harer Family Trust Collection, 8 January-30 December 1992.
San Antonio Museum of Art, Mummies: The Egyptian Art of Death, 20 July 1993-1 October 1995.
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Ancestors: Art and the Afterlife, 25 October 1998-25 June 1999.

Lot Essay

According to D'Auria (in Mummies and Magic, The Funerary Arts of Ancient Egypt, p. 222) "plaques of metal, gilded wood, or wax were often placed over the embalmer's incisions after the mummification process was complete. Such plaques were typically decorated with the protective wedjat eye." For a related example in metal see no. 173 in D'Auria, op. cit.

The hand-written museum catalogue from the Drexel Institute notes that this plaque was "found upon a mummy."

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