Egyptian Painted Cedar / Gesso Coffin Panel w/ Nut

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Ancient | Asian | Ethnographic

By Artemis Gallery

Jan 16, 2020

Set Reminder 2020-01-16 10:00:00 2020-01-16 10:00:00 America/New_York Bidsquare Bidsquare : Ancient | Asian | Ethnographic https://www.bidsquare.com/auctions/artemis-gallery/ancient-asian-ethnographic-4799
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• Lot Description
  Egypt, Late Dynastic to Ptolemaic period, ca. 664 to 30 BCE. A beautiful cedar wood coffin panel of a tapered rectangular form that is comprised of multiple planks joined by wooden dowels and mortises. The obverse side - which would have been an interior coffin wall - is covered in white gesso and painted in vivid white, red, yellow, and black hues that define an effigy of Nut (from the Egyptian Nwt), the goddess of the sky, stars, and rebirth. Nut stands with draped arms and a rigid posture, wears a red gown beneath a broad pectoral collar, and peers to the right with almond-shaped eyes. Her coiffure frames her gentle countenance and is surmounted by a wide, red-painted sun disk. Egyptian coffins featured images of Nut to aid the deceased in the process of resurrection. Custom lucite display box included. Size (panel): 19" W x 38.5" H (48.3 cm x 97.8 cm); (display box): 20.125" W x 40.3" H (51.1 cm x 102.4 cm).
  
  This depiction features a sun disk above Nut's head surmounted by a band of dark pigment, likely symbolizing the sky as Nut (also Nunut, Nuit) was the goddess and personification of the Sky and the celestial realm. She is regarded as the barrier separating the ordered cosmos of the world from the forces of chaos. In some depictions, Nut was portrayed as a woman arched on her toes and fingertips over the earth; her sacred body representing a star-filled sky. Nut's fingers and toes as such were believed to touch the four cardinal directions: north, south, east, and west. According to Egyptian mythology, Nut is a daughter of Shu ("he who rises up" or the personification of air) and Tefnut (goddess of moisture, dew, and rain); her husband and brother is Geb (god of the earth, father of snakes, whose laughter could bring about earthquakes and fertile crops), and she has four children: Osiris, Set, Isis, and Nephthys. Nut was also granddaughter of Ra or Atum, the creator god. The Coffin Texts describe Nut as "she of the braided hair who bore the gods". In one fascinating myth, Nut gives birth to the Sun-god each day, and he passes over her body during the day only to be swallowed at night and reborn the next morning.
  
  Interestingly, cedar wood was not native to Egypt. Egypt did not have verdant forests filled with tall trees, and unfortunately most of its native lumber was of relatively poor quality. Thus, they relied on importing to acquire hardwoods - ebony imported from Africa, cedar and pine from Lebanon. One fabulous obelisk inscription by Thutmose III attests to the luxury of treasured hardwoods. It reads as follows, "They brought to me the choicest products...consisting of cedar, juniper and of meru wood...all the good sweet woods of God's Land." The rarity of cedar meant that coffin panels like this example were reserved for those who could afford them.
  
  An example of a wooden sarcophagus panel featuring Nut, of a larger size, hammered for $31,200 at Christie's, New York "Antiquities" auction (sale 1846, June 8, 2007, lot 27).
  
  Provenance: private J. Hallen collection, Beaverton, Oregon, USA, acquired between 2007 and 2009; ex-Relics of the Nile, Lexington, Kentucky, USA
  
  All items legal to buy/sell under U.S. Statute covering cultural patrimony Code 2600, CHAPTER 14, and are guaranteed to be as described or your money back.
  
  A Certificate of Authenticity will accompany all winning bids.
  
  We ship worldwide and handle all shipping in-house for your convenience.
  
  #151118

  Condition

  Chips, abrasions, and small losses to each plank, with fading to areas of original pigment, light encrustations, and age-commensurate desiccation to wood and painted gesso. Great earthen deposits and original pigment throughout, and Nut iconography is still visible.
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