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Lot Essay
PUBLISHED:
S. Schoske & D. Wildung, Entdeckungen, Ägyptische Kunst in Süddeutschland, Munich, 1985, p. 50, no. 36.
S. Schoske & D. Wildung, Gott und Götter im Alten Ägypten, Mainz am Rhein, 1993, p. 194, no. 124.
A.-C. Thiem (ed.), Am Hofe des Pharao. Von Amenophis I. bis Tutanchamun. Exhibition catalogue Palais del Arte, Bussolengo, 2002, fig. 14.
I. Grimm-Stadelmann (ed.), Aesthetic Glimpses, Masterpieces of Ancient Egyptian Art, The Resandro Collection, Munich, 2012, p. 34, no. R-108.
Obsidian was not native to Egypt proper. Instead, it seemed to have been sourced in Abyssinia (modern Ethiopia), the Levant and later the Aegean. The history of obsidian usage in Egyptian art hearkens back to the Naqada I period, where it was used for blades, beads and pendants (P.T. Nicholson and I. Shaw (eds.), Ancient Egyptian Materials and Technology, Cambridge, 2000, p. 47). It continued to be used on a small scale in later periods, often as detailing elements such as the pupils of inlaid eyes or in amulets, scarabs and cosmetic vessels. In the Middle Kingdom, obsidian began to be used as a larger, more substantial element in Egyptian artwork, such as the head of King Senusret III in the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum, Lisbon, inv. no. 138, and this exquisite portrait head. The rise of its usage is perhaps connected to the 18th dynasty’s geographical expansion into regions where the stone was quarried, such as Tuthmosis III’s expansion into the Levant.
S. Schoske & D. Wildung, Entdeckungen, Ägyptische Kunst in Süddeutschland, Munich, 1985, p. 50, no. 36.
S. Schoske & D. Wildung, Gott und Götter im Alten Ägypten, Mainz am Rhein, 1993, p. 194, no. 124.
A.-C. Thiem (ed.), Am Hofe des Pharao. Von Amenophis I. bis Tutanchamun. Exhibition catalogue Palais del Arte, Bussolengo, 2002, fig. 14.
I. Grimm-Stadelmann (ed.), Aesthetic Glimpses, Masterpieces of Ancient Egyptian Art, The Resandro Collection, Munich, 2012, p. 34, no. R-108.
Obsidian was not native to Egypt proper. Instead, it seemed to have been sourced in Abyssinia (modern Ethiopia), the Levant and later the Aegean. The history of obsidian usage in Egyptian art hearkens back to the Naqada I period, where it was used for blades, beads and pendants (P.T. Nicholson and I. Shaw (eds.), Ancient Egyptian Materials and Technology, Cambridge, 2000, p. 47). It continued to be used on a small scale in later periods, often as detailing elements such as the pupils of inlaid eyes or in amulets, scarabs and cosmetic vessels. In the Middle Kingdom, obsidian began to be used as a larger, more substantial element in Egyptian artwork, such as the head of King Senusret III in the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum, Lisbon, inv. no. 138, and this exquisite portrait head. The rise of its usage is perhaps connected to the 18th dynasty’s geographical expansion into regions where the stone was quarried, such as Tuthmosis III’s expansion into the Levant.