Published Catalogue Text: Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern Bronzes at the Harvard Art Museums
This beautifully modeled, complete statuette of Osiris has a ridge of shroud around the back of the shoulders and slits for the arms; it is similar to 48.1965. The crook and flail are held in hands positioned one above the other. Osiris wears the atef crown and uraeus, but without the projecting ram's horns. There is a square-shaped peg under the feet. The surface is heavily corroded and covered in burial accretions that are scattered over the front of the chest, head, and headdress and obscure the broad collar and counterpoise. A fine weave pattern on the upper back may be the remnants of a fine cloth wrapped around the figure, a feature of Egyptian bronzes found in temple caches (1).
Osiris was one of the most popular gods of the Egyptian pantheon. Early in Egyptian history he represented a chthonic fertility god that later acquired the royal insignia of the crook and flail. He came to be identified as the ruler of the underworld. The Egyptian ruler, perceived during his lifetime as the incarnation of Horus, became Osiris after death. Over time, Osiris was equated with all deceased individuals and became a symbol of resurrection. The major cult shrine of Osiris was at Abydos in Middle Egypt, where Seti I (c. 1294-1279 BCE) built a magnificent temple in Dynasty 19.
Small bronze figurines representing Osiris show the god wrapped in a form-fitting garment, perhaps denoting a mummified shroud, and carrying the symbols of rulership—the crook and flail—in each hand. Enveloped in his shroud, Osiris’ arms are bound close to his body and his feet and legs stand together. The god is usually depicted wearing the White Crown of Upper Egypt, ornamented with a uraeus (cobra) on the front and sometimes flanked by two feathers (the atef crown). In addition, this crown can rest on a set of spiraling ram’s horns that project to either side.
The bronze figurines take two basic forms: seated or standing. Within each group, several subgroups can be distinguished according to the placement of the hands. The hands can be side-by-side without overlapping, the proper right hand above the left in a vertical alignment, or crossed over one another at the wrists. G. Roeder associates the different poses to geographical areas within Egypt: those with hands side-by-side in Middle Egypt, those with hands one above the other in Lower Egypt, and those with the hands crossed over one another in Upper Egypt (2). The position of the hands also appears to correlate with other broad stylistic features. For example, the ridge created by the shroud pulled around the shoulders occurs primarily on figurines in which the hands are arranged one above the other.
NOTES:
1. For example, see S. Davies, “Bronzes from the Sacred Animal Necropolis at North Saqqara,” in Gifts for the Gods: Images from Egyptian Temples, eds. M. Hill and D. Schorsch, exh. cat., Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, 2007) 174-87, esp. 179-80, figs. 76-77.
2. G. Roeder, Ägyptische Bronzewerke, Pelizaeus-Museum zu Hildesheim, Wissenschaftliche Veröffentlichung 3 (Hamburg, 1937) 89; and id., Ägyptische Bronzefiguren, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin Mitteilungen aus der Ägyptischen Sammlung 6 (Berlin, 1956) 133. See also M. Wuttmann, L. Coulon, and F. Gombert, “An Assemblage of Bronze Statuettes in a Cult Context: The Temple of ‘Ayn Manâwir,” in Gifts for the Gods: Images from Egyptian Temples, eds. M. Hill and D. Schorsch, exh. cat., Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, 2007) 167-73, esp. 169-70.
Marian Feldman
