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Exhibited:
1. Schirn Kunsthalle, Augenblicke. Mumienportr?ts und ?gyptische Grabkunst aus r?mischer Zeit, Frankfurt, Germany, 30 January 1999 - 11 April 1999.
2. Austrian National Library, Tod am Nil: Tod und Totenkult im antiken ?gypten, Vienna, Austria, 22 July 2003 - 5 March 2004.
Published:
1. Klaus Parlasca, Augenblicke. Mumienportr?ts und ?gyptische Grabkunst aus r?mischer Zeit (exhibition catalogue), Frankfurt, 1999, p. 336-337, no. 230.
2. Harald Froschauer & Hermann Harrauer, Tod am Nil: Tod und Totenkult im antiken ?gypten (exhibition catalogue), Vienna, 2003, p. 86-87, no. 4.
Note that the present lot is shown on the cover of this exhibition catalogue.
Expert’s note
The present mask was published by Klaus Parlasca in the catalogue of the landmark 1999 Frankfurt exhibition Augenblicke Mumienportr?ts und ?gyptische Grabkunst aus r?mischer Zeit in the Schirn Kunsthalle (192.715 visitors in 1999) as no. 230. Parlasca proposed Akhmim as its probable place of origin and specifically emphasized the remarkable quality of its execution, regarding this very quality as an important chronological indicator and concluding that the mask must have been created before the end of the 1st century AD. This assessment provides the basis for the more precise dating of circa 50-100 AD adopted here.
The mask was subsequently also exhibited as no. 4 in Tod am Nil: Tod und Totenkult im antiken ?gypten at the Austrian National Library in Vienna (173.153 visitors in 2003) from 2003-2004. Its importance within the exhibition is particularly evident from its selection as the cover image of the accompanying catalogue. Significantly, the Austrian National Library also chose the present mask to represent the exhibition in the official Austrian Cultural Report 2003, further underlining its status as one of the defining images of Tod am Nil.
Egypt. Finely modeled in cartonnage and richly decorated in polychrome pigments and gilding. The face is entirely gilt and outlined in red, with wide-open almond-shaped eyes heavily lined in black beneath prominent arched brows. The forehead is adorned with a band of uraei (sacred cobras) supporting solar discs, centered by two confronting cobras enclosing a larger solar disc. A second gilded diadem encircles the head, embellished with raised dots imitating precious stones and decorated with rosettes and images of Bes, beneath a band of lotus blossoms flanked by buds. Crowning the composition is a winged scarab pushing a solar disc enclosing a falcon, flanked by a flail and an ostrich feather symbolizing Ma’at.
The sides of the head are decorated with a red-ground band of uraei supporting solar discs. Below, kneeling jackal- and falcon-headed deities beat their breasts in jubilation, flanking a central panel depicting a falcon.
Condition: Good condition, commensurate with age. Extensive wear, weathering, and traces of prolonged burial, with losses to the cartonnage, pigments, and gilding. Areas of retouching to the pigments and gilding, as well as old reinforcements to the cartonnage, consistent with the age and fragile nature of the material.
Egyptian Export License: The present mask is accompanied by a copy of the official Egyptian export license, authorization no. 1240, dated 8 February 1965. The permit specifically identifies the object as “Gilded cartonnage mummy mask no. 68,” records it as belonging to the Collection Khashaba Pasha, and names Madame Simone de Monbrison, Paris, as the person to whom it was exported. The document further records Cairo Airport as the port of shipment and provides for inspection by the Egyptian Museum, official sealing of the package, and customs clearance. Such surviving Egyptian export documentation from this period is uncommon and provides particularly valuable contemporary evidence for both the lawful export of the mask and its provenance prior to its arrival in France. A copy of the complete documentation accompanies this lot.
Provenance:
- Collection of Sayyid Khashaba Pasha, Egypt, 1910, and thence by descent to his son Osman Khashaba.
- Simone de Monbrison, Paris, 1965.
- Pierre Bergé & Associés, Paris, 21 May 2014, lot 82, sold for EUR 120,000 or approx. EUR 160,000 (adjusted for inflation at the time of writing).
Sayyid Khashaba Pasha was a prominent and wealthy citizen of Asyut, Upper Egypt who developed a strong interest in the archaeology of his region in the early 20th century. Encouraged by the French Egyptologist Gaston Maspero (1846–1916), then Director of Antiquities of Egypt, he undertook and financed excavations in the ancient necropolises of Asyut and Meir between 1910 and 1914, assembling a significant collection of antiquities in the division of finds. He also founded the Egyptian Museum of Antiquities in Asyut, which remains in existence today. His collection included wooden sarcophagi, funerary equipment, limestone sculpture and reliefs, as well as other archaeological finds from the region. Objects excavated by Khashaba subsequently entered major international collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Following his death in 1953, a portion of his collection was inherited by his son, Osman Khashaba, and became known as the Osman Sayyid Khashaba Collection.
Simone de Monbrison was a distinguished Parisian dealer and collector active from the late 1960s, specializing in African and other non-European arts as well as ancient Mediterranean antiquities. Her gallery issued illustrated catalogues documenting a wide-ranging inventory, and works formerly in her collection subsequently entered major institutional and private collections, including those of the Louvre, Musée du quai Branly–Jacques Chirac, and Fondation Beyeler. Her activities formed an important part of the Parisian market for African and archaeological art during the second half of the 20th century.
Weight: 867 g (excl. stand), 4.3 kg (incl. stand)
Dimensions: Height 33 cm (excl. stand), 40 cm (incl. stand)
Akhmim, ancient Panopolis, was an important religious and funerary center in Upper Egypt, situated on the east bank of the Nile near modern Sohag. Its extensive necropolises yielded large quantities of richly decorated funerary equipment, including painted and gilded cartonnage masks and mummy coverings, particularly during the Ptolemaic and Roman periods. Excavations in the late 19th century brought numerous examples into major international museum collections. The long-established tradition of elaborate funerary decoration at Akhmim provides an important context for the present mask. Klaus Parlasca proposed Akhmim as its probable place of origin in his 1999 publication.
The ancient Egyptians believed that for the ank (transfigured spirit) of the deceased to live happily in the afterlife, it should forever be bound to a representation of the physical body. The mummified body provided this role; however, to guarantee against any threat to this fundamental connection due to accidental destruction of the mummy, a substitute body in the form of a statue or coffin could be provided. True embalming began in about 2600 B.C., with the extraction of the organs, and reached the height of its technique in about 1000 B.C. The brain was removed and discarded, while the principal organs of the body cavity (lungs, liver, heart and stomach) were kept separately in canopic jars or boxes. The limbs and skin were padded out, false eyes and hair were added, all to make the deceased appear as true to life as possible. The wrapped mummy would be placed in one or multiple coffins of various shapes, materials and styles, depending on the fashions of the time. Cartonnage masks, providing a highly stylized image of the deceased, were first used in the First Intermediate Period (c. 2160-2025 B.C.), with gilded faces becoming popular in the Second Intermediate Period (c. 1700-1550 B.C.). Their inclusion in the burial trappings fell out of practice in the Twenty-First Dynasty only to reappear in the Late Period and Ptolemaic Period, alongside pectorals and foot bases made from the same material and attached to the outer wrappings.
The uraei and solar discs, attributes closely associated with the goddess Isis, together with the lavish gilding, carry profound funerary significance. The ancient Egyptians believed that the skin of the gods was fashioned from gold, and the radiant gilded surface therefore alludes to the deceased woman’s transformation into a divine and immortal being in the afterlife. The presence of Bes, the bandy-legged protective deity associated particularly with women, childbirth, and the safeguarding of mothers and infants, further reinforces the theme of rebirth in afterlife. The repeated lotus blossoms, often employed as an allusion to the ankh, or sign of life, evoke the daily cycle of the flower’s opening and closing in response to the sun. In Egyptian thought, the lotus was associated with the emergence of the rising sun and its disappearance at dusk, making it a potent symbol of renewal and eternal life. Crowning the composition, the vignette of a scarab pushing a solar disc enclosing a falcon further evokes the deceased’s passage into a blessed afterlife and her transformation into a divine being.
Literature comparison:
Compare a closely related cartonnage mummy mask, dated ca. 100 BC-1st century AD, 36 cm long, in the Bowdoin College Museum of Art, accession number 1917.12.
Auction result comparison:
Type: Closely related
Auction: Christie’s London, 4 December 2024, lot 7
Price: GBP 81,900 or approx. EUR 103,000 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing
Description: An Egyptian gilt cartonnage mummy mask, Ptolemaic period - Roman period, circa 1st century B.C.-1st century A.D.
Expert remark: Compare the closely related form, decoration, use of gilt and pigments, and condition. Note the size (33 cm).
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