THIRD INTERMEDIATE PERIOD, 22ND DYNASTY, CIRCA 945-715 B.C.

Details

AN EGYPTIAN WOOD SARCOPHAGUS LID
THIRD INTERMEDIATE PERIOD, 22ND DYNASTY, CIRCA 945-715 B.C.
Preserving the upper end of an anthropoid lid, decorated with polychromy over gesso, her triangular face with a pointed chin, a wide nose and full lips, her elongated hieroglyphic eyes featuring large black irises beneath arching brows, adorned with a vulture headdress, a circlet with a geometric pattern around her head, a blue striated tripartite headcloth, the lappets each with a band above the lower edge, and a beaded broad collar, her two fisted hands below with the thumbs extended, emerging from within the vestment
26½ in. (67.3 cm.) high

Provenance

with the museum shop of the New Orleans Museum of Art, 1977 (inv. no. 9004-06), acquired by the current owner during the exhibit Treasures of Tutankhamun.

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Molly Morse Limmer

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Lot Essay

This coffin was given minimal embellishment, with the body likely left unadorned. According to Rocheleau (p. 44 in Ancient Egyptian Art), "While sufficient for ancient Egyptian purposes, this simplification...was deemed deficient in graphic interest by nineteenth-century collectors and antiquarians, who preferred flamboyant and elaborately decorated coffins. As a result the colorful heads were cut from the undecorated portions of the coffins and sold as is." For a similar example see cat. no. 17, pp. 44-46 in Rocheleau, op. cit.

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