Large Egyptian sarcophagus mask
€5,900
available
Object number
AR3426
| Object: |
Egyptian sarcophagus mask
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| Material: |
Wood. With stuccoed linen, painted in white, black, yellow and light orange.
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| Period: |
Late Period until Ptolemaic rule in Ancient Egypt, 664 BC to early 1st century BC. |
| Description: |
The Egyptian sarcophagus mask is a wooden relief showing a frontal view of an idealized face. The front side is covered by stuccued linen and painted. The eyes and a striped headcloth are done in black, white and yellow. The rest of the face is plain and painted in a light orange skin tone.
The rear is flat and was once attached to the sarcophagus. The face was integrated in the overall design of the sarcophagus lid. Since a few centuries, Egyptian sarcophagus masks are extremly popular in Ancient Egyptian collections. The timelessness of the faces are fascinating and like a looking glass into the past. The specimen offers here is outstanding due to it's large size and the extremely well preserved paint. |
| Background: |
The face mask was the head piece mounted on the outside of a sarcophagus of the ancient Egyptians. Such painted face masks were attached to the coffin by wooden pins. The head dress was formed out of stucco and applied above the mask.
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| Dimensions: |
34.5cm height and 49.8cm height including modern mount. 29.2cm width, 14.0cm depth (mask only).
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| Condition: |
The mask itself, once mounted on a sarcophagus, is in very good condition. The wood is fully intact with only minor signs of age. The stuccoed linen cover and the original polychrome paint is preserved in large parts. It has some missing parts at the rim and some loose flakes that might come off. Also some cracks and missing parts in the face. The mask's rear side is screwed to a modern mount, which is in turn mounted to a black modern wooden base. A wire at the back of the mask was an alternative and probably earlier modern way to mount the mask. A sticker inscribed "Ew 116" at the back of the base.
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| Provenance: |
Acquired by us in 2022 on the US-American art market. Previous with the US-American art gallery Aphrodite Ancient Art. Published in their catalogue "Ancient Portraits Volume VI" (2018), no. 3. In 2008 the mask was with Royal Athena gallery, a well-known art dealer at the time, item no. BM0807. Previously in the US-American collction M. B. In the time before the mask was in the US-American collection of Prof. Alcibiades N. Oikonomides (died 1988). Oikonomides was a Professor for Classical Antiquity at Loyola University Chicago. He acquired the mask in the 1970ies.
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| Literature: |
S. Walker, M. Bierbrier: Ancient Faces, Mummy Portraits from Roman Egypt (Part IV of the Catalogue of Roman Portraits in the British Museum).
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| Authenticity: |
We unconditionally guarantee the authenticity of every artefact, all items are subject to our lifetime return policy on authenticity.
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