DOI article:
Majewska, Aleksandra: "Golden Osiris" in the National Museum in Warsaw
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18950#0080
gold whose production was known from written and iconographic sources; it
consisted in spreading egg white on the surface and covering it with golden
flakes which were then polished for maximum adhesion.40 According to written
evidence not only wooden and bronze but also stone sculptures were coated
with gold.41 One example of such practice is the statuę of Osiris from the times
of the 26ch Dynasty, stored in Walters Art Gallery, which bears numerous traces
of goldplating.42
To sum up, comparing the Osiris from the collection of the National
Museum in Warsaw with Saite sculpture shows that the anatomy-based
approach to facial features, eye and mouth shape, the elaborate design of the
atef-crown with coiling uraeus as well as the form of braided beard attached to
the chin allow for dating the statuę for the first part of the 6th century B.C.
Although certain analogies discussed above are characteristic for the style of
Psamtek II and Apries, i.e. years 590-570 B.C., it can be assumed that artists
from that period continued their activity well into the reign of Amasis.
Sculptures created in the course of his over forty-year reign basically retained
the style of the past era with elear differences to be found only in the royal
iconography.
High artistic value of the sculpture places it among works which were created
in one of royal sculpture workshops in Lower Egypt (Memphis or Heliopolis)
or in Upper Egypt with the main centre in Thebes. Due to the fragmentary State
in which it has been preserved determining a morę exact location (North or
South) is impossible,43 just as it is impossible to determine whether the head
belonged to a statuę of Osiris seated on the throne, as it is the case in the statuę
from the Psamtek tomb belonging to the collection of the Egyptian Museum in
Cairo44 or standing as he is usually portrayed in bronze figures and less
freąuently when carved in stone.45
A statuę carved with such mastery and coated in gold might have been a
votive offering left in a tempie by a high rank official. Such offerings were to
win the donator the god's favour and ensure his participation in daily offering
ritual in the afterlife.46 Hundreds of such bronze and stone figures from the last
millennium B.C. were excavated in the sanctuaries throughout Egypt. No
doubt, the greatest number depicted Osiris and Isis suckling the infant Horus.
Starting from the Third Intermediate Period, Osirian cult spread throughout
the country on an unprecedented scalę.4. Many of the preserved figures of
Osiris came from the temples in Karnak or Medinet Habu. Although dedicated
40 Idem, p. 377; Nicholson, Shaw, op. cit., pp. 164-165.
41 Idem, p.379, footnotes 404-406.
42 Inv. no. 22184, ESLP, p. 48, cat. no. 41, pl. 38.
43 Determining the workshop might be possible if the hands with royal insignia had been
preserved. According to the Roeder's classification, the arrangement of hands allows for
determining whether the figurę comes from Lower, Middle or South Egypt (cf. footnote 7).
44 Cf. footnotes 21-23.
45 Daressy, op. cit., pl. XII, cat. no. 38.231, pp. 66-67.
46 Robins, op. cit., p. 226.
4 As a result of syneretism developing in the times of the New Kingdom, Osiris, originally
78
consisted in spreading egg white on the surface and covering it with golden
flakes which were then polished for maximum adhesion.40 According to written
evidence not only wooden and bronze but also stone sculptures were coated
with gold.41 One example of such practice is the statuę of Osiris from the times
of the 26ch Dynasty, stored in Walters Art Gallery, which bears numerous traces
of goldplating.42
To sum up, comparing the Osiris from the collection of the National
Museum in Warsaw with Saite sculpture shows that the anatomy-based
approach to facial features, eye and mouth shape, the elaborate design of the
atef-crown with coiling uraeus as well as the form of braided beard attached to
the chin allow for dating the statuę for the first part of the 6th century B.C.
Although certain analogies discussed above are characteristic for the style of
Psamtek II and Apries, i.e. years 590-570 B.C., it can be assumed that artists
from that period continued their activity well into the reign of Amasis.
Sculptures created in the course of his over forty-year reign basically retained
the style of the past era with elear differences to be found only in the royal
iconography.
High artistic value of the sculpture places it among works which were created
in one of royal sculpture workshops in Lower Egypt (Memphis or Heliopolis)
or in Upper Egypt with the main centre in Thebes. Due to the fragmentary State
in which it has been preserved determining a morę exact location (North or
South) is impossible,43 just as it is impossible to determine whether the head
belonged to a statuę of Osiris seated on the throne, as it is the case in the statuę
from the Psamtek tomb belonging to the collection of the Egyptian Museum in
Cairo44 or standing as he is usually portrayed in bronze figures and less
freąuently when carved in stone.45
A statuę carved with such mastery and coated in gold might have been a
votive offering left in a tempie by a high rank official. Such offerings were to
win the donator the god's favour and ensure his participation in daily offering
ritual in the afterlife.46 Hundreds of such bronze and stone figures from the last
millennium B.C. were excavated in the sanctuaries throughout Egypt. No
doubt, the greatest number depicted Osiris and Isis suckling the infant Horus.
Starting from the Third Intermediate Period, Osirian cult spread throughout
the country on an unprecedented scalę.4. Many of the preserved figures of
Osiris came from the temples in Karnak or Medinet Habu. Although dedicated
40 Idem, p. 377; Nicholson, Shaw, op. cit., pp. 164-165.
41 Idem, p.379, footnotes 404-406.
42 Inv. no. 22184, ESLP, p. 48, cat. no. 41, pl. 38.
43 Determining the workshop might be possible if the hands with royal insignia had been
preserved. According to the Roeder's classification, the arrangement of hands allows for
determining whether the figurę comes from Lower, Middle or South Egypt (cf. footnote 7).
44 Cf. footnotes 21-23.
45 Daressy, op. cit., pl. XII, cat. no. 38.231, pp. 66-67.
46 Robins, op. cit., p. 226.
4 As a result of syneretism developing in the times of the New Kingdom, Osiris, originally
78