• Egypt, Late Period, 26th Dynasty (?)
  • Ivory
  • Inv. 164B

Panel from a casket

Carved in fine low-relief, this panel (like others from the same small casket) is considered to be among the most beautiful Egyptian works in ivory. The panels decorated a casket or jewel-box, and still have traces of green polychrome.

The scene depicted shows a procession of people bearing offerings, set against a background decoration of papyruses whose green has survived. A long-legged bird that seems to be an ibis with a long beak and a clearly marked eye appears in front of the figure, walking alongside his advanced left leg.

This ivory panel is a pair for another in the Collection and part of a set comprising a further five. The panel shows clear signs of the taste for archaic art that was typical of the Late Period, reviving forms from the Old Kingdom, namely scenes of processions carrying products as offerings.

MacGregor Collection. Acquired by Calouste Gulbenkian through Howard Carter at the sale of the MacGregor Collection, Sotheby’s, London, June/July 1922.

H. 16.5 cm; W. 6 cm

Araújo 2006

Luís Manuel de Araújo, Egyptian Art. Calouste Gulbenkian Collection. Lisbon: Calouste Gulbenkian Museum, 2006, pp. 102–3, cat. 18.

Updated on 22 april 2022

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