The God of the Pharaoh
Falcon-headed wood sarcophagus containing the original falcon mummy.
Painted wood, 55 cm high. Includes the original falcon mummy, shrouded in linen with bitumen. Presented in an upright custom glass case.
€ 85,000.00
An uncommonly early, completely preserved wooden sarcophagus containing the original falcon mummy for which it was fashioned, dating to the Twenty-sixth Dynasty of Egypt (6th to 7th century BCE). The lid of the sarcophagus is carved in the shape of a falcon representing Horus, one of the most significant ancient Egyptian deities who served many functions, most notably as the god of kingship, healing, protection, the sun, and the sky. Although there is evidence of the veneration of falcon gods even in Predynastic Egypt (before 3000 BCE), the mummification of falcons did not begin until the 7th century BCE, lasting approximately until the 2nd century CE.
The falcon's head is painted beige and black, with round eyes and a hooked beak. Horus is shown wearing a wig in the tripartite style, with two sections draped over the shoulders. The body is mummiform, with the feet sculpted to protrude. Inside the hollowed-out coffin lies the mummy of a falcon, wrapped in meticulously herringbone-bound painted linen. The head wears a white hood, decorated with black paint and bitumen, the beak similarly sculpted to protrude.
An X-ray image shows the skeleton of the bird intact with wings folded, in imitation of the shape of a human mummy. The right wing is broken, indicating that the animal was deliberately mutilated and intended as a sacrificial offering.
Exhibited by Galerie Carrefour until 1988 (with two original expert opinions by Pierre Verité, dated February 1988), then sold to the art dealer Giano Del Bufalo. Accompanied by a French antiquities passport.
Completely intact and in exceptionally fine state of preservation. The coffin and lid are connected by two (of originally four) mortise and tenon joints.
For a similar, but significantly later example of this type, complare the falcon mummy in the Budapest Szépmüvészeti Múzeum (Museum of Fine Arts), specimen 98.4-E (between 4th and 1st century BCE).
