AN EGYPTIAN GOLD/GILT BRONZE STATUE OF OSIRIS
Late Period, Dynasty XXVI-XXX, 664-343 B.C.
Depicted mummiform, the arms emerging from beneath the bandages and folded over the chest, holding the crook and flail, wearing a plumed atef-crown fronted by a uraeus, with carefully-detailed features, the braided false beard curved, preserving some traces of gold guilding.26.7 cm high. Provenance: With Mansour Gallery, London.With Royal-Athena Galleries, New York, 1983.Notes:Osiris was the undisputed ruler of the Egyptian hereafter and the one deity with whom the deceased desired to be identified because of his promise of resurrection based on the cycles of the floral kingdom, dormant seeds of which sprout again with the cyclic return of the agricultural season.
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