Gilded Cartonnage Mummy Mask and Trappings

Gilded Cartonnage Mummy Mask and Trappings

late Ptolemaic Period, ca. 197-30 BC

Egypt

Linen, gesso, pigment, gold
Mummy mask: 34 cm High x 20 cm x 6 cm
Abdominal trapping: 15.3 cm High x 25.2 cm
Collar: 15.3 cm High x 26.2 cm
Leg cover: 37 cm High x 11.2 cm

2018.010.247 (abdominal trapping), 2018.010.248 (collar trapping), 2018.010.639 (leg trapping), 2018.010.673 (mummy mask)

Masks protected the mummified head and presented the transfigured state of the deceased. If the mummified head was lost or damaged, masks ensured the deceased could be whole. This brightly painted cartonnage mummy mask has a gilded face, a tripartite blue wig and a multi-strand beaded broad collar visible between the wig lappets. This cartonnage mask is part of a set of polychrome and gilded cartonnage mummy trappings that include a wesekh-collar, a panel with winged goddess Nut, and a center panel.

The cartonnage mask and mummy trappings were once part of the collection of Princess Maddevi Yukanthor, who was born in 1925 and lives in Paris. The mask was purchased by Georges Ricard for the Senusret Collection on 5 April 1974 from Roger F. Galliano, a member of the Conciliation Commission at Central Customs in Paris, certified expert of the Chamber of Auctioneers of France and Judicial Officer of Geneva.

[See additional images below]

Gift of the Georges Ricard Foundation

Parallels and References:
Washington, DC. Smithsonian, CAT number A553190