Egyptian sarcophagus face fragment, New Kingdom, 19th-20th Dynasty, c.1295-1069 BC
Wood
Height: 29.2cm
11751
Further images
Female face from the lid of a wooden sarcophagus, carved with delicate features to show high-arched eyebrows, large almond-shaped eyes and elegant nose. Originally the whole surface would have been...
Female face from the lid of a wooden sarcophagus, carved
with delicate features to show high-arched eyebrows, large
almond-shaped eyes and elegant nose. Originally the whole
surface would have been painted in bright colours, but now
the surface only has small areas of white gesso remaining,
with red pigment on the lips, and black delineating the eyes
and cosmetic lines. Fixing dowels at the proper right of the
mask and under the chin; that on the proper left is missing.
The sarcophagi from the New Kingdom are generally considered to be of greater artistic merit than those from later periods; the present mask exemplifies this.
Provenance
Bud C. Holland (1922-1994), Chicago, USA
Eugene J. Chesrow Jr. (b.1930), Chicago, USA; acquired 24th April 1980 from the above
Private collection, London, UK; acquired 2018
