Description:
An unusually large statuette of the god Osiris, depicted in the traditional mummiform pose, his arms protruding from the enveloping mummy wrappings. He is holding a crook and flail and wears the Atef crown which has a rather elaborate form: the white crown of Upper Egypt is flanked by striped feathers amd rams horns, on top of which a cobra is positioned on either side, each wearing a sun disk on its head; a central uraeus (a protecting cobra) is showing its hood and is depicted in an eight-shape, the rest of its long body running up all along the crown. Osiris also wears a false beard with incised details; chin straps are also depicted. The god is also adorned with a collar, which is incised. Details of the cobras and the regalia are incised as well. The god is standing on an integral rectangular plinth.
This statuette was probably made in Lower Egypt: the right hand, holding the flail, is placed above the left hand which bears the crook; this is the position ascribed by Roeder to Lower Egypt. The way the crook is shown, extending below the left hand, also belongs to the Lower Egyptian tradition.
Published:
Art of the Ancient World, volume XVII, (New York - London, 2006), no. 176; Mark Merrony (ed.), Mougins Museum of Classical Art, Guide Book(Mougins Museum of Classical Art Series) (Mougins, 2011), p. 43, fig. 16; Claudine Dauphin, Animals in the Ancient World. The Levett Bestiary (Levett Collection Series, volume 2) (Mougins, 2014), p. 16.
Exhibited:
Picker Art Gallery at Colgate University, Hamilton, Madison County, New York, U.S.A., 1987-1996; Ball State University, Muncie, Indiana, U.S.A., 1996-2005; Musée d'Art Classique de Mougins, Mougins, France, June 2011-2018.
Literature:
Jacques F. Aubert – Liliane Aubert, Bronzes et or égyptiens (Paris, 2001), p. 139 ff.; Georg Steindorff, Catalogue of the Egyptian Sculpture in the Walters Art Gallery(Baltimore MD, 1947 - copyright 1946), pl. LXVI-LXVII; Günther Roeder, Ägyptische Bronzefiguren (Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Mitteilungen aus der ägyptischen Sammlung, 6) (Berlin, 1956), pl. 26. For the position of the hands and the possible Lower Egyptian origins of the statuette see ibid., p. 186 f.
Dating:
Late Period, circa 664-332 B.C.
Size:
Height 32.5 cm.
Provenance:
European private collection; thereafter with Sotheby's London, 19 May 1986, lot 148a; thereafter with Royal-Athena Galleries, New York; thereafter U.S.A. private collection E.K., Canton, Michigan, acquired from the above in March 1987; with Royal-Athena Galleries, New York, 2005; thereafter Musée d'Art Classique de Mougins, France, acquired from the above in June 2009; thereafter Dutch private collection.
Condition:
Minor damage to the face (affecting the proper right cheek and lip; tip of nose dented). Some encrustation, very minor pitting and other surface wear as visible on the photographs, else intact. Mounted on a modern stone base.
SOLD
Stock number:
E1254