DOI Artikel:
Lipińska, Jadwiga: Egyptian sculptures and reliefs "Brought" by Professor Kazimierz Michałowski from Edfu
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18950#0062
The next sculpture worth a mention is a badly battered statuę of the
goddess Toeris,20 who wears a tripartite wig (ill. 11). She is lacking her feet,
left hand, the front part of her jaw, and her left ear. Her body is also damaged
in many parts, with her breasts suffering especially. Again, as in other cases,
nothing is known about the whereabouts of this object, but after some work
by the restorer it could be ąuite an interesting item in the Gallery.
The last position in this short (and very incomplete) review of the works of
art acąuired by professor Michałowski for the National Museum in Warsaw
is a stela with the representation in rather high, bulging relief, which has been
wrongly interpreted as “Horus and Ptah” (ill. 12).21 The rectangular stela
presents an image of a shrine facade, with a typical frieze of uraei above a
plain lintel with a sun-disk flanked by two uraei, supported by two columns.
In the shrine are two mummiform figures, facing each other: to the right a
god with a falcon head in a tripartite wig is crowned with a sundisk with
ureus, and holds a crook and flail in his hands. No inscription identifies the
god, and several of the falcon-headed solar deities can be considered - Horus,
Re, or Re-Horakhty. It is possible, that the text was once written in ink below
the decorated part, but has disappeared.
In the centre a tali stylised palm-branch divides the decorated field. It is
supported by another mummiform figurę of a man with short hair and a kind
of lotus-diadem on his head. The object is evidently a rare kind of funerary
stela, possibly dated to the lst or 2nd centuries A.D. One should recall here a
group of sandstone stelae from Edfu with a Horus-falcon (or two falcons)
represented inside a facade of a tempie or chapel.22 There is much similarity
in terms of the workmanship of those stelae and the one in Warsaw, in
simplicity of composition and the plasticity of the sculpted forms. The
architectural motif is almost an exact parallel to the Cairo stela JE 46760
from Edfu,23 with the exception that the Cairo object is enriched with two
morę columns supporting arches. Representations of the deceased owners of
stelae as mummies are extremely rare in that period, except in scenes of
embalming. In examples where they are represented in an upright position,
the mummy is supported by Anubis,24 absent on the Warsaw stela. Materiał
for comparison is, however, so scarce, that it is best to leave the matter here,
without entering into further speculation concerning the provenance and
dating of that interesting object.
20Inv. no. 141269, sandstone, 67 cm high, 30 cm wide.
21 Michałowski, Zbiory... op. cit., p. 56; idem, Sztuka... op. cit., p. 172. Inv. no 141292, sandstone,
45 cm high, 27 cm wide.
22 K. Parlasca, “Falkenstelen aus Edfu”, in Festscbrift zum 150-jdhrigen Bestehen des Berliner
Agyptischen Museums, Berlin 1974, p. 483-487; also similar stela in Moscow, S. Hodjash,
O. Berlev, The Egyptian Reliefs and Stelae, Leningrad 1982, cat. no. 159, sandstone, 2nd-3rd c. A.D.
23 Ibid., pl. 85.
24 For example Stela of Parthenios dated to the Tyberius reign, inv. no 3/67; Agyptisches
Museum, Berlin, Charlottenburg 1967, cat. no. 964; also similar scenes: Catalogue General du
Musee du Caire, cat. nos 22201, 22205, 22206.
60
goddess Toeris,20 who wears a tripartite wig (ill. 11). She is lacking her feet,
left hand, the front part of her jaw, and her left ear. Her body is also damaged
in many parts, with her breasts suffering especially. Again, as in other cases,
nothing is known about the whereabouts of this object, but after some work
by the restorer it could be ąuite an interesting item in the Gallery.
The last position in this short (and very incomplete) review of the works of
art acąuired by professor Michałowski for the National Museum in Warsaw
is a stela with the representation in rather high, bulging relief, which has been
wrongly interpreted as “Horus and Ptah” (ill. 12).21 The rectangular stela
presents an image of a shrine facade, with a typical frieze of uraei above a
plain lintel with a sun-disk flanked by two uraei, supported by two columns.
In the shrine are two mummiform figures, facing each other: to the right a
god with a falcon head in a tripartite wig is crowned with a sundisk with
ureus, and holds a crook and flail in his hands. No inscription identifies the
god, and several of the falcon-headed solar deities can be considered - Horus,
Re, or Re-Horakhty. It is possible, that the text was once written in ink below
the decorated part, but has disappeared.
In the centre a tali stylised palm-branch divides the decorated field. It is
supported by another mummiform figurę of a man with short hair and a kind
of lotus-diadem on his head. The object is evidently a rare kind of funerary
stela, possibly dated to the lst or 2nd centuries A.D. One should recall here a
group of sandstone stelae from Edfu with a Horus-falcon (or two falcons)
represented inside a facade of a tempie or chapel.22 There is much similarity
in terms of the workmanship of those stelae and the one in Warsaw, in
simplicity of composition and the plasticity of the sculpted forms. The
architectural motif is almost an exact parallel to the Cairo stela JE 46760
from Edfu,23 with the exception that the Cairo object is enriched with two
morę columns supporting arches. Representations of the deceased owners of
stelae as mummies are extremely rare in that period, except in scenes of
embalming. In examples where they are represented in an upright position,
the mummy is supported by Anubis,24 absent on the Warsaw stela. Materiał
for comparison is, however, so scarce, that it is best to leave the matter here,
without entering into further speculation concerning the provenance and
dating of that interesting object.
20Inv. no. 141269, sandstone, 67 cm high, 30 cm wide.
21 Michałowski, Zbiory... op. cit., p. 56; idem, Sztuka... op. cit., p. 172. Inv. no 141292, sandstone,
45 cm high, 27 cm wide.
22 K. Parlasca, “Falkenstelen aus Edfu”, in Festscbrift zum 150-jdhrigen Bestehen des Berliner
Agyptischen Museums, Berlin 1974, p. 483-487; also similar stela in Moscow, S. Hodjash,
O. Berlev, The Egyptian Reliefs and Stelae, Leningrad 1982, cat. no. 159, sandstone, 2nd-3rd c. A.D.
23 Ibid., pl. 85.
24 For example Stela of Parthenios dated to the Tyberius reign, inv. no 3/67; Agyptisches
Museum, Berlin, Charlottenburg 1967, cat. no. 964; also similar scenes: Catalogue General du
Musee du Caire, cat. nos 22201, 22205, 22206.
60