Upper Part of a Sarcophagus Lid

Culture: Egyptian

Period: Late period, 26th dynasty, 664-525 B.C.

Material: Wood

Dimensions: 75 cm high

Price: 60 000 Euro

Ref: 1583

Provenance: German private collection, acquired in 1975 from Galerie Ägyptische Kunst in Göttingen, Germany (catalogue 1975, no. 36). Thence with Galerie Roswitha Eberwein in Göttingen and in 1988 sold to the German collection Renate Wald. From her estate auctioned with Christie’s London on 26 April 2012, lot 213 (sold for 73 250 GBP). There acquired by the German collection Erika Krautkrämer (1932-2022). Last in her family estate.

Condition: Colours mostly wonderfully preserved. On the calotte and on the right arm partly worn areas and larger stabilizations. In the back a board to also be able to mount the lid on a wall.

Description: Magnificently painted wood upper part of an anthropoid sarcophagus lid dating to Egypt’s 26th dynasty. The framing around the eyes and brows are inlayed with bronze, the eyes themselves are of alabaster, the pupils of opaque glass. The face with a straight nose, a gentle smile and ears protruding from the tripartite wig. The wig is painted with large vulture wings, whose plumage is extremely finely applied. On the neck unfolds the monumental, multi-row collar (“wesekh”) with ornamental bands and rosettes, which ends on the shoulder in falcon heads (worn on the right shoulder). Amongst them the figure of the sky goddess Nut in a form-hugging red gown with wings spread out. Her name is inscribed in hieroglyphs inside of the sun disk, which she carries on her head. Nut kneels on a temple with a black door, whose façade is decorated with a chessboard pattern. Left and right thereof several columns with hieroglyphs with prayer phrases, at each end an inward looking figure of a ram of Mendes in green colour with curved horns, feather crown and sun disk. The ram called Ba-neb-djedet, the “Ba soul, of the Lord of Djedet”. He encased the creative primal force of the world in four forms, or “Ba souls”, who were considered the Ba souls of the first four rulers of the world. Mounted.