Richly Decorated Mummy Mask of a Woman

Culture: Egyptian

Period: Roman Period, 1st Century A.D.

Material: Linen cartonnage

Dimensions: 31.1 cm high

Price: 40 000 Euro

Ref: 1591

Provenance: From the New York private collection of Harry Wallace, acquired in the 1960s-1970s. Subsequently sold at Christie’s New York, June 4, 2008, lot 59. Acquired there by the collection of Erika Krautkrämer (1932-2022). Until recently, in family ownership.

Condition: There are some missing parts at the bottom edge, as can be seen in the photos; otherwise wonderfully preserved with vibrant colors.

Description: Magnificent mummy mask made of linen cartonnage, richly decorated with polychrome paint. The face, with its white complexion, identifies the mask as that of a woman of high status. The eyes, outlined in black with large pupils and long eyeliner, are framed above by blue eyebrows. The corners of the eyes, the lips, the nostrils, and the chin are painted red. The woman wears a tripartite wig that leaves the ears visible. Her forehead is adorned with a winged solar disk flanked by two uraeus serpents facing outward. The lappets falling over the shoulders are divided into registers. At the top of each side is the bust of a Sokar falcon with a solar disk, shown in profile facing inward. Beneath runs a frieze of uraeus serpents with solar disks. The left lappet shows at the bottom another register with two falcons facing each other, wings outstretched, under pseudo-hieroglyphs, with shen-rings between them as symbols of eternity. The edges of the wig are decorated with pseudo-hieroglyphs, checkerboard patterns, and beaded designs. On each side are two large registers: the upper depicting falcons with shen-rings, the lower showing the jackal-headed god Anubis performing the embalming ritual on the mummy resting on a lion-shaped bier. On the crown, in the center, appears the Ba-bird with a human head, embodying the soul’s transformation and its ability to separate from the body. Above it is a male deity with a solar disk, likely Re, and to either side two shrines, each with a solar disk and uraeus. Below, the four sons of Horus, guardians of the internal organs, flank an Apis bull. The back side shows a splendid falcon with solar disk and uraeus, spreading its richly ornamented wings. Mounted.