An Egyptian Alabaster Head of a Jackal

Late Period, 26th-30th Dynasty, 664-525 B.C.

Height 6 inches (15.2 cm).

Provenance:

Private Collection, Europe.

The Merrin Gallery, New York.

Private Collection, New York, acquired 14 February 1989 (Inv. no. GR89).

Note:

In ancient Egypt, the jackal most commonly represented the god Anubis. Anubis was closely associated with the mummification process, and played an important role in protecting the deceased. In the Book of the Dead, Anubis is the "Guardian of the Scales" and responsible for judgement by weighing the human heart together with the Feather of Truth (Ma'at). If the heart is lighter than the feather, he will take the soul by boat across the Nile into the afterlife (Duat).

Among the finest known of its type, this head of a jackal once served as the lid to a canopic jar. While the overall shape is straightforward and minimal, its elegance is made evident by the subtle detailing around the eyes, snout, and ears. The effect is extraordinarily realistic. The master stoneworker who carved it must have been extremely familiar with the animal they were representing. Conceivably from a royal workshop, the overall quality is befitting a pharaoh.

For similar examples of jackal headed canopic jars, see Brooklyn Museum of Art (Inv. no. 37.894Ea-b), and Egyptian Museum, Berlin (Inv. no. ÄM 7191).

Height with stand 9 inches (23 cm).
Intact as preserved. A large area of loss on the bottom edge of the back. Light encrustations on the proper left ear. A small area of UV fluorescence on the corner of the proper left eye, but not appearing to be a repair.

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Jacob Coley

Senior Vice President, Head of Department, Antiquities and Ancient Art

[email protected]312 280 1212

Mr. Coley joined the Antiquities department in 2021 after working as Managing Director in the Ancient Art department at Colnaghi, the world’s oldest commercial art gallery, where he helped to establish the Ancient Art department and launched Colnaghi New York in 2017. Prior to Colnaghi, Mr. Coley was in the Greek and Roman Art department at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Mr. Coley holds a B.A. from the University of Miami and an M.A. in Art Market from the Fashion Institute of Technology, and he earned an art-appraisal certificate from New York University.

Antiquities and Ancient Art: A Study

An Egyptian Alabaster Head of a Jackal

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