LOT 0051

Egyptian Painted Wooden Mummy Mask

PTOLEMAIC PERIOD, CIRCA 3RD CENTURY B.C.

11 3/4 in. (1.04 kg, 30 cm).

D-shaped in plan with carved facial detailing, thick nose and full lips; painted bands to the brow, pierced in three places for attachment.

Swiss private collection, Zurich, assembled in the 1950s.
Private collection.
Acquired on the Zurich art market in 2013.

This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by a search certificate number no.12847-241680.

Cf. for a similar mask Derbala, A., Müller, A., ‘Cartonnage to Plaster. Mummy Masks of the Ptolemaic and Early Roman Periods from Tuna el-Gebel’ in Archäologischer Anzeiger, 2022/2, fig.17, p.49.

The cartonnage mask from the Ptolemaic Period (305-30 BC) was a funerary covering made of wood or layers of papyrus/linen and plaster, modelled and painted, which covered the face of the mummy, often gilded, decorated with coloured glass and stones, and depicted the deceased with an idealized face and golden skin to protect him and guarantee him rebirth as a deity in the afterlife, combining Egyptian tradition with Graeco-Roman influences.