Egypt, Late Dynastic period, ca. 712 to 332 BCE. A trio of brightly painted cartonnages - plastered layers formed into panels to line the inside of a sarcophagus or used as mummy decoration. These painted strips are made of gesso (a mixture of chalk, pigment, and gypsum) over wide linen strips. Using a plastered surface like this formed a more stable surface for painting. These particular examples are all from one coffin, and are clearly from a coffin that was for someone in the middle class. The paintings are simple, with no hieroglyphs. The widest of the three panels was probably laid over the chest area, symbolically forming necklaces with a twin serpent design. The other two panels include profile sketches of gods, including Anubis and Sobek, and figures wearing the sun disk that signifies connection to Ra and pharaonic power. By the time of the Late Dynastic period, the elaborate funerary rituals and furniture of the Egyptian grave had become an industry, mass produced, given to, for the first time, the non-elite. While in some regards, this was a democratization of death, opening up access to certain privileged religious rituals to many more members of the society, it also signals a decline in these religious practices and a simplification of motifs and artwork. Size of chest piece: 6.9" W x 11.5" H (17.5 cm x 29.2 cm); size of smaller: 4.1" W x 11.5" H (10.4 cm x 29.2 cm); size of larger: 5.55" W x 15.1" H (14.1 cm x 38.4 cm); total size: 6.9" W x 38.1" H (17.5 cm x 96.8 cm)

Provenance: Ex-Swiss collection acquired before 1973.

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#117962

Each strip has chipped paint and worn/cut edges as shown. These pieces are fragile and paint can easily flake off of them.