Ancient Egyptian Solid bronze Sculpture of god Osiris. 25.6 cm H. Ex. coll. "Staatliche Museen" Berlin issued of 1946

God Osiris CULTURE: Ancient Egypt PERIOD: Late Period, 626 - 323 BC MATERIAL: Bronze DIMENSIONS: Height 25. 6 cm PROVENANCE: Private collection, Germany, acquired through inheritance in 1946. PUBLICATIONS: - Aisthetike. J. Bagot Arqueología. Barcelona. 2018. Fig 10. CONDITION: In a good state of preservation, intact and without restoration. The false beard has a crack but is not broken. The surface of the metal is of a dark brown colour with patches of green patina in some zones. The gilding, which originally covered the piece, is still apparent on the front of the figure, on the face, the back of the neck and the crown. DOCUMENTS: - With a certificate of authenticity from the Department of Antiquities of the "Staatliche Museen" of Berlin issued on 2/11/1946. - With a documentation from Dr. Herbert Dreyer dated 9/11/1946. DESCRIPTION: An imposing sculptural image of one of the major deities of the Egyptian pantheon, the god Osiris. It is of solid bronze made by the lost-wax technique. The figure is erect, in a rather rigid pose. Osiris is wrapped in a shroud which clings closely to the contours of his slender body. Only his hands with closed fists protrude from his shroud near the centre of his chest. From the hollows in the fists we can deduce that the figure would have been holding a sceptre, which would have been made separately, perhaps also of bronze or another metal such as gold. He wears the most representative headdress, the atef crown, on his head. This is made up of the White Crown of Upper Egypt with the addition on either side of an ostrich feather. A cobra snakes down the front of the crown with its head erect just above the god’s forehead. This element was also made separately and would have been inserted in the square hollow that can be seen here. A wide necklace, the usekh, decorates the chest and passes around the neck. Originally, the figure of Osiris was linked to the fecundity of the Egyptian soil, the renewal of vegetation and the world of shepherds, as evidenced by the heka sceptre (which reproduces the shepherds’ crook) . He embodied the fertile land and the arable fields, and therefore became the guardian of the order of the universe and the cycles of nature. But the most famous myth concerning him is the one in connection with his death, known through many versions: the son of Geb (the earth) and Nut (the sky) and the husband of Isis, the god primarily was a pharaoh. With Isis, they were a pair of royal benefactors who taught mankind farming and fishing (Osiris) , weaving and medicine (Isis) . Jealous of the sovereign, his brother Seth assassinated him, cut up his body and disposed of the pieces in the Nile. However, Isis, his wife and faithful widow, found and reassembled the body of her husband and, with the help of her sister, Nephtys, and of Anubis, she embalmed the corpse. After breathing life into him for a short instant, Isis was impregnated by Osiris: this union resulted in the birth of Horus, who, following in the footsteps of his father, became Pharaoh. And so, after having survived the ordeal of death, Osiris triumphed thanks to the magic of his wife and became the ruler of the underworld. He represented the seeds of life and, at the same time, was the protector of the deceased, to whom he would promise life after death. \t These two closely related characteristics linking the god of fecundity and the funerary divinity were certainly the basis for the success Osiris enjoyed in the Egyptian world: from the New Kingdom on, and especially during the entire 1st Millennium BC, statuettes of Osiris were among the most important funerary offerings. \t The technique of lost wax casting is a sculptural procedure using a mould made from a prototype of the piece to be worked, and this prototype is usually made from beeswax. This is covered with a thick layer of soft material, usually clay, which then solidifies. Once this has hardened it is put in a kiln where the wax inside melts and leaks out through expressly made holes in the clay. In its place molten metal is injected and this takes on the exact form of the mould. To release the final piece the mould must be removed. \t BIBLIOGRAPHY: - AA. VV. Fastueuse Égypte. Musée Calvet, Avignon (25/06/2011 au 14/11/2011) , ouvrage publié sous la direction d’Odile Cavalier. AVIGNON. 2011. - AA. VV. Momias egipcias. El secreto de la vida eterna. Fundació La Caixa. 2013. - BIANCHI R. S. , ZIEGLER Ch. Les Bronzes égyptiens - Fondation Gandur pour l’Art. Till Schaap Editions. Bern. 2014. p. 96, n. 21. - GODDIO, F. Osiris : Mystères engloutis d'Egypte. Coédition Flammarion. 2015. - PAGE-GASSER M. - WIESE A. B. Egypte, Moments d’éternité. Genève, 1997. pp. 260-261, n. 172. - SCHOSKE S. - WILDUNG D. Gott und Götter um alten Ägypten. Mayence/Rhin. 1992. pp. 123-124, n. 83. - WILKINSON H. R. The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt. London. 2003. Notes: The seller guarantees that he acquired this piece according to all national and international laws related to the ownership of cultural property. Provenance statement seen by Catawiki. The seller will take care that any necessary permits, like an export license will be arranged, he will inform the buyer about the status of it if this takes more than a few days. The piece includes authenticity certificate. The piece includes Spanish Export License (Passport for European Union) - If the piece is destined outside the European Union a substitution of the export permit should be requested. This process could take between 1 and 2 months.