Mummy Mask Made of Inscribed Papyri with a Winged Scarab

Culture: Egyptian

Period: Ptolemaic period, late 2nd century B.C. to early 1st century B.C.

Material: Cartonnage

Dimensions: 46 cm high

Price: 24 000 Euro

Ref: 1521

Provenance: Dutch collection V. D. W., Hoofddorp, acquired prior to 1983. Last in the French art market. With a copy of the collection inventory list.

Condition: Beautifully preserved mask with strong colours, which are stabilized with varnish on the outside. Inside, text in Demotic language is still recognizable on the processed papyri.

Description: Expressive mummy mask of inscribed papyri, which is worked to a cartonnage, covered with a layer of plaster and painted polychrome. The mask with a tripartite wig and a golden-yellow filet, which is bound at the back with a red thread. In the centre of the filet a golden sun disk framed in red. Above a finely painted winged scarab with a blue body and golden-yellow wings with blue stripes. The blue lobes of the wig cascade over the shoulders in the front and finish in horizontal red, golden-yellow and blue stripes. Between an opulent collar with registers, which depict tongues, beads and lines in different colours. The face with fine features, the eyes with large round pupils, thin, black framing and a long eyeliner. Above are finely drawn, narrow brows. The ears protruding from the wig, nose and mouth are sculpturally modelled and ochre coloured like the face. On the inside remains of inscribed papyri are clearly recognizable. The readable inscription on the inside of the back of the mask is a settlement in Demotic language. It mentions month dates, precisely the third month of the Peret period (season of the emergence), as well as the first three months of the Shemu period (season of the harvest), as well as amounts of money in copper standard. Thanks to the inscription the mask can be dated very exactly to the late 2nd to early 1st century B.C. Mounted.