Description:
This is a marvellous mummy cartonnage full of symbolic meaning and with vibrant colors. Such cartonnages were placed over the body of the deceased after mummification, not only to protect it as a sarcophagus, but also to promote the rebirth of the deceased.
The cartonnage contains five registers; a column with hieroglyphic text, running down the middle, divides four of these in halves. All the scenes are framed by either simple yellow lines or by bands of green, white and red rectangles, whereas the whole cartonnage below the first register is bordered by a vegetal patterns of triangles in alternating lighter and darker shades of green against a white background.
The text reads: Words to be spoken by the Osiris Her justified, the son of Paenimen justified, born to the lady of the house Senut justified. I come and bring to you Anubis, the lord of the mummy bindings, the lord of the sacred underworld, so that he may realise for you a good burial in the west of Abydos eternally.
The top register shows the mummy of the deceased, lying on a bier which is lion-headed and has animal legs; such beds or tables were used during the mummification process. A funerary mask is covering the head of the deceased and his body has been wrapped in bandages. Under the bier four canopic jars are shown, containing the viscera. The lids of these jars depict the heads of the four children of Horus. From left to right these are: Hapy (head of a baboon, protecting the lungs), Qebehsenuf (head of a falcon, protecting the intestines), Duamutef (head of a jackal, protecting the stomach) and Imsety (human head, protecting the liver).
Flying over the mummy is a bird with a human head. This is the so-called ba-bird. The ba (often incorrectly translated "soul") was the aspect of a human being that implied free movement; funerary texts tell us that every morning the ba would fly out of the tomb as a bird to be “recharged” by the sunlight; in the evening the ba would return to the mummy and rest on it, thereby transferring the energy of the sun to the body. On a mythical level, the sun would be equated with the ba, coming out of the earth every morning and returning to the mummy of Osiris every night.
On either side of the mummy is a goddess, acting as a wailing woman for the deceased, and at the same time saluting the ba, the arms raised in a gesture of both mourning and adoration. They are the sisters of Osiris, Nephthys on the left, in front of the hieroglyph for the east, and Isis on the right, in front of the sign for the west.
Positioning the deceased with his feet towards the east also has a symbolic meaning: when he lifts his head, he will look towards the east, the place where the sun will be reborn.
The vertical multicolored bands that border the scene also function as a support for a large hieroglyph representing the sky.
The whole scene is a powerful representation of resurrection, and placing this scene on the body of the mummy was meant to help him being reborn.
The second register shows us the four children of Horus, their bodies depicted mummiform with only the head and hands protruding. The faces are surrounded by a tripartite wig and the hands are holding a strip of linen bandage. From left to right they are Hapy, Imsety, Duamutef and Qebehsenuf.
The third and fourth register depict deities who are sitting with their knees bent, on top of which knives can be seen which they hold to protect the deceased. Depictions of the realm of the dead, as seen in tombs and in funerary compositions like the Book of the Dead and the so-called underworld books, depict many of these guardians, showing a great variety in their appearances. The deities in the fourth register seem to copy (or are the same as) the gods in the second register, perhaps with the exception of the deity on the left.
The fifth register depicts two flowers, placed upside down in the upper corner so that the shape of the petals follows the circular lower end of the cartonnage, thereby creating a wonderfully balanced symmetry.
This flower is commonly called a lotus, but is now generally accepted to represent a water lily, (nymphaea caerulea). Although this was the symbol of Upper Egypt (with the papyrus as the symbol of Lower Egypt), it had a much deeper significance in funerary context.
One of the Egyptian creation myths inform us that in the beginning darkness was covering the inert primeval waters, until suddenly a flower appeared and opened its petals, revealing the young creator or sun god; this was the beginning of creation and time. The Egyptians knew that the water lily opened up every morning, showing its yellow-golden heart, and would close again in the evening, only to reopen the next morning. They associated this with the cycle of the sun who was reborn every day. This beautiful scene therefore is another powerful symbol of regeneration.
Background information:
- The name of the deceased: See Hermann Ranke, Die ägyptischen Personennamen (Glückstadt, 1935), I, 245, 18; for the father idem, I, 106, 8; for the mother idem, I, 297, 7 (there attributed to the Middle Kingdom only). It may be possible that the scribe wrote the text for a woman (in which case the name would be Heret and the following word would be daughter instead of son); this might be indicated by the use of the feminine ending t as well as the shape of the determinative of the name. On the other hand the rest of the text uses the male personal pronoun, and the artist has used the t incorrectly elsewhere in the text and made some other minor mistakes, so probably it is just a scribal error.
- Cartonnage was made with several layers of linen (or, in later periods, sometimes recycled papyrus documents) which were glued together and shaped in a mould or moulded over the mummy, and then coated with a layer of gesso (a mixture of glue and plaster). This resulted in a smooth medium, well suited for painting.
- The children of Horus: Munro has argued that all four gods have originally been represented in human form, among them Imsety as a female. Later, in the Middle Kingdom, they were also shown as animals, but only during the New Kingdom they were each connected with a particular animal (see Peter Munro, "Bemerkungen zum Gestaltwandel und zum Ursprung der Horus-Kinder", in Festschrift zum 150jährigen Bestehen des Berliner Ägyptischen Museums (Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Mitteilungen aus der Ägyptischen Sammlung, 8) (Berlin, Akademie Verlag, 1974), p. 195-204).
Dating:
Late Period, circa 525-332 B.C.
Size:
Height circa 47 cm, width circa 19.5 cm. Size of frame: height circa 71.5 cm, width circa 44 cm.
Provenance:
Belgian private collection, Brussels, acquired in the 1970s; thereafter with Bagot Arqueología, Barcelona, Spain.
Condition:
Excellent condition, with only a few minor losses and other damage, as shown. Professionally framed behind glass.
SOLD
Stock number:
E1078