Polychrome-Painted Wood Statue of Nephthys

Culture: Egyptian

Period: Late Period, 664-332 B.C.

Material: Wood

Dimensions: 35.3 cm high

Price: Reserved

Ref: 1618

Provenance: From the Belgian collection of Jean-Jacques Rotthier (1932–2009). Thereafter in family ownership. Exhibited and published in the catalogue of the exhibition: „Dieux, Génies et Démons en Égypte ancienne: Á la rencontre d’Osiris, Anubis, Isis, Hathor, Ré et les autres“, Catalogue of the exhibition at the Musée Royal de Mariemont, 21 May – 20 November 2016.

Condition: Paint losses as visible in the photograph, particularly in the area of the back. Otherwise wonderfully preserved.

Description: Published wood statuette of Nephthys in a mourning gesture, preserved in magnificent colours. The goddess kneels and sits on her heels, with her left hand resting on her thigh and her right hand raised to her face. Nephthys wears a blue wig surmounted by the hieroglyph of her name as a tall crown. The skin of her bare upper body is painted in the green colour of rebirth, while her face glows in gold. Her lower body is wrapped in a close-fitting garment reaching down to her feet. Nephthys kneels on a rectangular base decorated on its outer side with motifs of the serekh symbol, representing the niches and recesses of the facade of the royal palace. The large, wonderfully preserved statue is made of several individual parts joined together by tenons. In this depiction, Nephthys mourns her brother Osiris, who was murdered by Seth. Through this gesture, she seeks to help him achieve rebirth. Since every deceased person metaphorically becomes an Osiris, she serves – often together with a corresponding statue of her sister Isis – as a protector of the deceased, at whose head she was placed. See for the type, the statues in the Brooklyn Museum with accession number 11.681, and in the Metropolitan Museum of Art with object number 12.182.23a. Our statue is published in: Arnaud Quertinmont „Dieux, Génies et Démons en Égypte ancienne: Á la rencontre d’Osiris, Anubis, Isis, Hathor, Ré et les autres“, Catalogue of the exhibition at the Musée Royal de Mariemont, 21 May – 20 November 2016, no. 144.