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Identification and Creation

Object Number
1920.44.300
Title
Part of an Atef Crown
Other Titles
Alternate Title: Diety's Headdress
Classification
Sculpture
Work Type
fragment
Date
mid 7th-late 1st century BCE
Places
Creation Place: Ancient & Byzantine World, Africa, Egypt (Ancient)
Period
Late Period to Ptolemaic
Culture
Egyptian
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/304041

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Copper alloy
Technique
Cast, lost-wax process
Dimensions
10.4 cm (4 1/8 in.)
Technical Details

Chemical Composition: ICP-MS/AAA data from sample, Copper Alloy:
Cu, 75.91; Sn, 1.12; Pb, 16.2; Zn, 1.28; Fe, 1.58; Ni, 0.03; Ag, 0.17; Sb, 0.92; As, 2.79; Bi, less than 0.025; Co, less than 0.005; Au, less than 0.01; Cd, less than 0.001

J. Riederer

Technical Observations: The patina is a very dark green. Possible inlay material above the cobra is missing. There are small break surfaces at the bottom left and right edges, indicating losses there.

The object was cast by the lost-wax process. The wax model was constructed by combining separate pieces for the uraeus, its headdress, the large feather, and the twisted horn at the bottom. Wax manipulation marks and joins between these pieces are visible at the back. Fine wire inlay over much of the front surface is red and green, and it is likely that the wire used for this inlay was copper or another copper alloy. Fine scratch marks at the back appear to be original finishing marks in the metal.


Henry Lie (submitted 2002)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Miss Elizabeth Gaskell Norton, Boston, MA and Miss Margaret Norton, Cambridge, MA (by 1920), gift; to the Fogg Art Museum, 1920.

Note: The Misses Norton were daughters of Charles Elliot Norton (1827-1908).

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Gift of the Misses Norton
Accession Year
1920
Object Number
1920.44.300
Division
Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact
am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
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Descriptions

Published Catalogue Text: Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern Bronzes at the Harvard Art Museums
The feather atop a twisted ram’s horn represents a piece of a larger crown, the so-called atef crown typically worn by Osiris. Examples of the complete headdress are visible among the bronze statues of Osiris in the Harvard collection (1). Resting on top of the ram’s horn is a uraeus (cobra) surmounted by a sun disc, 2.6 mm thick (2). There remain two pegs for attachment, at the bottom and mid-way up the right side of the feather. The relatively wide outlines of the interior detailing may indicate that they were originally inlaid with another material, such as glass paste or other metals (3). The sun disc of the uraeus was also designed to take an inlay of some colored substance. The back is undecorated.

NOTES:

1. For example, see 48.1965 and 1919.524.B.

2. For comparable detailing, see G. Roeder, Ägyptische Bronzefiguren, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin Mitteilungen aus der Ägyptischen Sammlung 6 (Berlin, 1956) 160, pl. 25g (inv. no. 7521).

3. Compare a copper alloy atef-crown feather with preserved glass inlays at the Brooklyn Museum, inv. no. 53.76.2; and a copper alloy atef­-crown feather that might originally have been inlaid at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, inv. no. X.439. For an overview of the types of polychromy used on copper alloy Egyptian statuary, see F. Shearman, “Patina and Polychromy: Reconstructing Some Technical Histories for Small Egyptian Bronze Sculpture in the British Museum,” in Decorated Surfaces on Ancient Egyptian Objects: Technology, Deterioration and Conservation, eds. J. Dawson, C. Rozeik, and M. M. Wright (London, 2010) 46-57.


Marian Feldman

Subjects and Contexts

  • Ancient Bronzes

Related Works

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art at am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu