Egypt, Late Dynastic to Ptolemaic Periods, ca. 712 to 30 BCE. A beautiful, brightly painted gesso and linen panel from a sarcophagus, decorated with fine artwork depicting the god Thoth and goddess Sekhmet, standing in profile, both mummiform, between two registers of hieroglyphs. Thoth has his ibis-headed form, with a long beak and curved neck; his body is mummiform, with a blue wig and what looks like the Atef Crown, a tall, conical crown with ostrich feathers on each side, thought to be a representation of the plumed feathers of the sacred Bennu bird. Thoth was the god of wisdom and writing, and in worship to him many thousands of ibises were ritually sacrificed, embalmed, and mummified before being buried in underground galleries. Size of fragment at widest: 5.1" W x 11.7" H (13 cm x 29.7 cm); size of frame: 9.125" W x 14.5" H (23.2 cm x 36.8 cm)

Sekhmet also wears the Atef Crown and a blue wig, with a mummiform body; her head is that of a lion. Sekhmet's name means "the powerful one" and she was seen as a strong protector of the pharaohs who was also a warrior goddess and could lead them in warfare. The two figures are in a line, and at the edges of the fragment, we can see that there were once two other figures beside them. These gods and the hieroglyphs surrounding them were designed to offer protection to the person inside the sarcophagus in the afterlife.

Provenance: private Pasadena, California, USA collection

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#128352

Piece is a fragment, with losses along edges and a small tear on the center left (facing). Very nicely preserved motifs with light surface wear commensurate with age. Exceptional preservation of much of the pigment.