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    Sale 2007

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    4 June 2008

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    • AN EGYPTIAN PAINTED PAPYRUS FR
    Lot 11

    AN EGYPTIAN PAINTED PAPYRUS FRAGMENT

    THIRD INTERMEDIATE PERIOD, DYNASTY XXI-XXII, 1070-712 B.C.

    Price realised

    USD 17,500

    Estimate

    USD 18,000 - USD 22,000

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    AN EGYPTIAN PAINTED PAPYRUS FRAGMENT
    THIRD INTERMEDIATE PERIOD, DYNASTY XXI-XXII, 1070-712 B.C.
    Preserving the upper portions of two vignettes in distinctly different styles, to the right stands the First Prophet of Amen-Re, Amenmose-sa(?) facing left before the sun god Re-Harakhty-At-um, the prophet wearing a white tunic with red-stripes, a false beard, and a short wig with a white fillet, topped with an incense cone, his hands raised in adoration, holding a bowl of offerings in his right hand, with four columns of hieroglyphs above reading, "Adoration of Re (on) the beautiful festival, the Osiris Chief of nw(?), the First Prophet of Amen-Re-King of the Gods, Amen-mose-sa(?), justified," the falcon-headed god facing right, wearing a broad collar, holding a crook and a flail, his head surmounted by a solar disk encircled by a uraeus, with four columns of hieroglyphs to the right reading, "A royal offering formula (to) Re-Harakhty-At-um, Lord of the Two Lands, the Southern Heliopolitan, that may give Sefet (a sacred oil), wine(?), oxen, fowl, incense, alabaster vessels and clothing, and everything good and pure, (for) the Osiris, Overseer (sic) of Athribis(??), Amenmose-sa(?), justified;" to the left preserving the top register of the 12th Hour of the Amduat ("That Which Is In the Afterworld"), with a series of deities facing right, all in black outline with some details in red, with hieroglyphic text above, some words legible including "everything," "field," "Re the Lord," "the West," and "Lord of Life"
    21½ in. (54.6 cm.) long

    Provenance

    Collected by Gustave Jéquier (1868-1946).

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    Lot Essay

    For a related depiction of the sun god see the scroll of Neferrenpet, no. 26 in Kischkewitz, Egyptian Drawings, and for the black outline style of the Underworld deities see the tomb of Tuthmosis III, no. 12 in Kischkewitz, op. cit. The Amduat portion of the Jéquier fragment, not withstanding the lacunae, cannot be coherently read. When describing a similar Third Intermediate Period mortuary papyrus, Lesko (p. 128 in "The Shortest Book of Amduat?" in Studies in Honor of G.R. Hughes) concluded "that what was wanted was a representation of the text, as it were, rather than the text itself," since during this period the texts were probably no longer meant to be read.

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