Egyptian Polychrome Gilt Cartonnage Mask

Late Ptolemaic to Early Roman Period, circa 1st century B.C. – 1st century A.D.

A large and impressive ancient Egyptian gilt and polychrome-painted cartonnage mummy mask, the idealized face fully gilded with gold leaf over a fine gesso ground and modeled with serenely composed features — wide, almond-shaped eyes inlaid with painted whites and black irises, accented by long black cosmetic lines and arched brows, the contours of the face delicately outlined in red and wearing a deep blue-painted tripartite nemes-style headdress framing the face and falling onto the shoulders, fronted by a broad gilded wesekh collar molded in low relief; the lappets and lower shroud are painted in vivid red, blue, and yellow with a polychrome floral net (rishi-style feather/diamond) pattern characteristic of the period.

Cartonnage masks such as this were constructed over a removable form by building up successive layers of coarsely woven linen stiffened with animal glue, then surfaced with fine white gesso of chalk and animal glue, onto which gold leaf was applied and burnished — a technique described in detail by Peter Lacovara in Mummies & Magic: The Funerary Arts of Ancient Egypt (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston). As Lorelei Corcoran notes in the same volume, the use of gold for the face evoked the belief that the flesh of the sun god — with whom the deceased aspired to be united — was made of pure gold, while the lapis-blue headdress mirrored the god's divine hair; gilded masks were generally reserved for individuals of relatively high social and economic status.

A closely comparable example is illustrated as catalogue no. 151 in Mummies & Magic (MFA Boston), and further parallels are held in the MET, Boston MFA, British Museum. Louvre, Bowers Museum, etc.

Dimensions: 15¾ in. (40.2 cm) high; presented on a custom black finish display mount which can be wall hung as well as a table.

Condition: Very good for type; stable surface with expected age cracks (craquelure to gilding), minor losses to edges and shroud margins, vivid retention of gilding and polychrome

Provenance:  London art market, 1980;  Private collection, London; Christie's, London, 6 October 2011, lot 51. 

Compare with an almost identical example in Mummies & Magic: the Funerary Arts of Ancient Egypt (Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Ca no. 151) where Peter Lacovara writes "such masks were made over a three dimensional form by building up numerous layers of coarsely woven linen stiffened with animal glue. The linen substrate was smoothed with a layer of fine white gesso made from chalk and animal glue or gum. Gold leaf was applied to this ground and burnished." Lorelei Cocoran writes, also in Mummies & Magic; “The use of gold may have been a prerogative of the wealthy class but may also have had origins in the idea that the flesh of the sun god, with whom the deceased aspired to be united, was believed to be made of pure gold and the headdress made of lapis-lazuli."