GILDED MUMMY MASK

GILDED MUMMY MASK

Polychrome cartonnage mask, made of layers of linen coated with gesso; the human skin of his youthful face, neck and prominent ears gilded, surrounded by a tripartite blue wig, decorated on top with a large black scarab, red sundisk in its legs, around a band with continuous figures of the four sons of Horus; large bust of falcon with widespread wings at the back and at the front a large winged sun disk with cobra at either side below; small frontal band with three cobras alternating with three lotus buds around his face, row of cobras below his face; large bust of a falcon with sundisk and a cobra at either side of his large ears

Ex priv. coll. D. Sivasligil, Overijse, Belgium, thereafter sold at Nagel Auktionen, Stuttgart 2014, BRD
Dim.19 x 30 x 30 cm. On wooden stand, part of reverse deficient

Ptolemaic–Roman Period, 1st cent. BC – 1st cent AD

Note: The use of gold or gold leaf was connected to the belief that the sun god Re, with whom the deceased hoped to be united, had flesh of pure gold, and to the fact that gold does not tarnish, therefore guaranteeing immortal life. Cf. S. Ikram/A.Dodson, The mummy in Ancient Egypt, Londo 1998, pp. 187-188, figs. 218-221.