AN EGYPTIAN LAPIS LAZULI FIGURE OF A GOD, LATE PERIOD, 664-332 B.C.

拍品描述

AN EGYPTIAN LAPIS LAZULI FIGURE OF A GOD, LATE PERIOD, 664-332 B.C. Carved from a single piece of deep blue lapis lazuli shot through with pyrite inclusions and paler calcite veining, the figure stands frontally upon a rectangular integral plinth, the body sheathed in a close-fitting mummiform garment that tapers gently towards the feet. The arms are crossed at the chest in the Osirian attitude, the hands emerging from the wrappings to grasp what appear to be ritual implements. The head is framed by a long tripartite wig falling in striated lappets over the shoulders and down the back, above a broad multi-tiered wesekh collar rendered in low relief. The face is broad and softly modelled, with almond eyes set beneath arched brows, a straight nose, and a small closed mouth. A narrow divine beard, plaited and squared at the terminal, descends from the chin against the collar. The posture and attributes identify the figure within the Osirian and funerary sphere of Late Period divine imagery. The crossed arms holding implements at the chest, combined with the mummiform sheath and plaited divine beard, are the standard formula for a god of the dead or a deified mummiform deity, most commonly Osiris himself or one of the closely associated chthonic gods such as Ptah-Sokar-Osiris. The tripartite wig and squared beard, rather than the curled beard of a living king, mark the figure as divine rather than royal. Without an inscription on the back pillar or base to confirm the name, the identification remains generic within this iconographic family. Lapis lazuli was among the most highly valued materials in Egyptian religious production. Imported over great distances from the mines of Badakhshan in what is now northeastern Afghanistan, it reached Egypt through long-established trade networks and was reserved almost exclusively for royal, temple, and elite funerary commissions. Egyptian religious texts describe the hair of the gods as lapis lazuli and the material was understood to partake of divine substance itself, its deep blue evoking the night sky and the primordial waters. A figure of a mummiform god carved fully in the round from lapis, rather than inlaid or set into gold, represents a substantial commission and would have functioned as a votive deposit within a temple context or as a high-status amuletic figure placed within the wrappings of a mummy or upon a shrine. Sculpture in lapis of this scale is uncommon, the material more usually reserved for smaller amulets, inlays, and beadwork owing to the difficulty of obtaining stones of workable size free from fissures. The carver has exploited the natural variation of the stone, allowing the paler calcite passages to run across the lower body while concentrating the deepest saturation of blue around the head and shoulders where the divine features are most legible. This figure exemplifies the Late Period reassertion of archaic Osirian iconography in precious materials, a moment when Egyptian workshops, drawing on centuries of established typology, produced small-scale votive sculpture that consolidated the visual language of divine kingship of the dead in the most prestigious stone available to the temple economy. Dimensions: Height: 9.2cm

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