This fragment of a painted linen shroud was designed to protect the mummified body of its owner and to aid the deceased in their transition to a new semidivine state by identifying them with the god Osiris, the ruler of the underworld. Made from flax plants that grew abundantly in the Nile Valley, linen was an essential commodity for both the living and the dead in ancient Egypt.^[1] Linen funerary shrouds were laid directly on top of the mummified individual, enveloping the body. Traces of this use can be observed in the crease patterns on the back of this shroud (fig. 1). The front of the shroud is covered in religious imagery rendered in crisp black linework. Complete examples of this type feature a life-sized image of the god Osiris (or, when the owner is female, sometimes the goddess Hathor) depicted in a frontal pose.^[2] When placed over its mummified owner, the image gave a face to the mummy, providing an interface between the deceased and those participating in the funerary rituals.^[3] Here, only the lower portion of the god’s body is preserved, with the undulating contours of his legs clearly defined. A net of round and tubular beads arranged in a diamond pattern covers his body (compare cat. 105) and runs beneath a vertical band of decoration in the center of the shroud.1

This central panel is divided into registers, each of which contains imagery associated with Osiris and the revivification of the deceased.^[4] These vignettes, as well as the scenes found to either side of the central section, are each topped with a band of stars that refers to the sky. Counting from the top, the first and fifth registers feature an anthropomorphized djed pillar holding the crook and flail—the regalia of ancient Egyptian kings including Osiris, Egypt’s first king. In the upper register, the djed stands in the middle of a kiosk. The lower scene depicts the djed between winged goddesses, each of whom is accompanied by the caption “giving life, stability, and dominion.” In the second and fourth preserved registers, deities flank shrines. The register between them (the third preserved register), shows two mummiform protective deities holding strips of linen on either side of the ba (fig. 2). Represented as a human-headed bird, the ba is the part of the soul that departs the body at death. Free to wander the land of the living in order to procure sustenance, it returned to the tomb each night to reunite with the mummified body.2

To either side of the bead-covered legs are symmetrically arranged registers filled with standing figures who face the central section of the shroud.^[5] In front of each figure, rectangular boxes hanging from the top of the scene appear where hieroglyphic captions would have been added in larger works (such as wall reliefs), although the containers remain empty here. On both sides, alternating registers show mummiform divine figures holding strips of linen that represent textile wrappings used in the mummification process. The depictions of these deities use the iconography of the Four Sons of Horus, the gods responsible for protecting the embalmed organs of the deceased (compare cat. 72).^[6] Although the Four Sons of Horus are typically shown with baboon, falcon, human, or jackal heads, the multitude of species represented here—including a ram, a lion, and snakes—suggest that more than the traditional four protectors are invoked on this shroud.3

Of the remaining registers, the upper pairs both show a woman accompanied by Anubis, the jackal-headed god of embalming (figs. 3a–b). Wearing a tight-fitting dress, the woman stands behind an offering table with her arms raised in a gesture of praise. On the right side, which is more detailed, three round loaves of bread and a falcon-handled brazier sit atop the ornate table. Papyrus umbels and lotus flowers are tied around its base, symbolizing the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt. As Thomas George Allen notes, the woman represented here is probably the shroud’s owner, although her name is not given.^[7]4

The lower pair of figured registers feature gods. On the left side, the mummiform figure standing in a shroud is identified by inscription as “Osiris, the Great God, Lord of Busiris, Lord of Abydos” (figs. 4a–b). Behind a column of hieroglyphs recording the beginning of an utterance by Osiris, a ram-headed god stands with his hands raised in adoration. The basic composition is mirrored on the right side, where hieroglyphs label “Osiris, Foremost of the West, the Great God, Lord of Busiris” and the falcon-headed god (“Horus, Lord of the Lotus, Son of Isis”). Abydos (in Middle Egypt) and Busiris (in the Delta) were Osiris’s two primary cult sites.
5

On both sides the lowermost section is decorated with the palace facade, a motif inspired by ancient Egyptian architecture. This motif complements the corresponding decoration in the central panel, which depicts a doorway topped with a pair of falcon heads, each crowned with a sun disk. The shape created by the outward-facing bird heads placed back-to-back is reminiscent of the Egyptian hieroglyph for “horizon,” 𓈌, a fitting setting for the sun disk that hovers above, evoking connotations of rebirth tied to the cyclical life cycle of the sun.6

Provenance

Art Institute of Chicago from 1910 [purchased by Martin A. Ryerson on behalf of the Art Institute of Chicago during a trip to Egypt in 1910; collection of Egyptian art objects arrived on May 28, 1910, recorded in Day Book, vol. 4, 122, former accession number X.400; memo R6000, Jul. 13, 1936, 92 and 108].7

Publication History

Thomas George Allen, A Handbook of the Egyptian Collection (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1923), 17, 18 (ill.) (referred to as X.400).8