Mummy Mask with a Gilded Face

Culture: Egyptian

Period: Late Ptolemaic Period, 1st century B.C.

Material: Linen, Cartonnage

Dimensions: 46.5 cm high

Price: 28 000 Euro

Ref: 1365

Provenance: Belgian private collection, acquired from the Galerie des Saints-Pères in Paris in April 1980. With a copy of the original certificate. Sotheby's New York on 12 December 2013, lot 18. Thence Sotheby's Hong Kong on 2 April 2018, lot 3047. Last in the Chenel collection, France. Accompanied by a copy of the French antiquities passport.

Condition: Mask stabilized from the inside. Lappets cleaned of bitumen with a few overpainting. Retouching on the right temple and the left forehead.

Description: Mummy mask with rich gold leaf decoration symbolizing the golden flesh of the gods, which, identical to the sun, promises immortality. The mask with a tripartite wig and a red and blue headband that is tied at the back. A golden udjat eye on his forehead. Under the diadem blue strands fall over the forehead ending in black ringlets. The face is dominated by large eyes with wide open, dark pupils that are typical for the masks from this period. Black raised eyebrows. Mouth and nose carefully worked out. The golden face is framed by a red line. Goddesses kneeling on the wig lappets in adoration gesture. The Usekh collar with richly embellished, polychrome decoration. The mask is decorated with a band of geometric motifs at the bottom, and rosettes and Horus eyes form the end of the mask. On the back a standing female figure to the right with a tripartite wig and a tied diadem. Remains of bitumen. Mounted.