AN EGYPTIAN ROCK CRYSYAL AMULET OF URAEUS LATE PERIOD, DYNASTY XXI-XXX, 664-343 B.C.

拍品描述

AN EGYPTIAN ROCK CRYSTAL AMULET OF A URAEUS, LATE PERIOD, DYNASTY XXI-XXX, 664-343 B.C. Carved in openwork from a single piece of translucent rock crystal, the amulet takes the form of a rearing cobra, its body arranged in three sinuous coils that terminate in a raised hood and forward-facing head at the upper left. The hood is incised on its front face with a central spine flanked by fine oblique striations rendering the characteristic markings and dilated ribs of the cobra in threat display. The looped body encloses three openings of graduated size and rests on a short flat base. Above the hood rises a ribbed cylindrical projection, pierced horizontally to serve as a suspension loop. The stone retains its natural translucency, with pale earthen deposits accumulated in the incised lines and within the perforation. The subject is the uraeus, the rearing form of the cobra goddess Wadjet of Buto, tutelary deity of Lower Egypt and protector of the king. Worn at the brow of the pharaoh on the royal diadem, the uraeus was understood to spit fire against the sovereign's enemies and to embody the fierce solar eye. As an amuletic form the uraeus extended this royal protection to private individuals both in life and in the tomb, where it was placed among the wrappings of the mummy to shield the deceased from harm during the passage to the afterlife. The apotropaic force of the image lay in the cobra's readiness to strike, and the sculptor here has emphasised precisely that moment, the body gathered and the hood raised. Rock crystal was a material of some consequence in Egyptian amuletic production. Harder than the more common faience, steatite, or carnelian, it required abrasive working rather than carving in the ordinary sense, and its clarity was associated with purity and with the luminous nature of the sun. Transparent stones permitted the amulet to be read from either face, doubling its efficacy, and the material's resistance to weathering ensured the survival of protective virtue across generations. Uraeus amulets in rock crystal are considerably less frequent than those in faience or bronze, and the openwork treatment seen here, in which the coils of the serpent are cut fully through the plaque, demanded a level of lapidary control that placed such objects among the more finely finished amulets of the Late Period. This amulet exemplifies the concentration of royal protective imagery into miniature private form that characterises the amuletic repertoire of the Late Period, when older iconographies were reworked in harder and more prestigious stones. The choice of rock crystal, the openwork carving, and the careful rendering of the cobra's hood mark it as a considered devotional object rather than a mass-produced funerary type. Dimensions: Length: 2.6cm

图片