<em>Fragment of Cartonnage from Breast of Mummy</em>, ca. 945–656 B.C.E. Cartonnage, pigment, 9 1/4 x 10 11/16 x 1/4 in. (23.5 x 27.1 x 0.7 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 37.1531E. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 37.1531E_PS4.jpg)

Fragment of Cartonnage from Breast of Mummy, ca. 945–656 B.C.E. Cartonnage, pigment, 9 1/4 x 10 11/16 x 1/4 in. (23.5 x 27.1 x 0.7 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 37.1531E. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 37.1531E_PS4.jpg)

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In the text for the Re-Osiris, there's a distinction between deceased and departed, one going with Ra, the other with Osiris. What was the difference?

There actually isn't one, I think that the writer of the label didn't want to use the same word twice! The soul of a deceased person merged with Re in order to join Re's journey across the sky which ended at the western horizon, the land of Osiris. The same soul would then attempt to enter the afterlife and if they was successful it would merge with its king, Osiris.

Cool. Understood, thanks!

What did the Egyptians use to create these beautiful colors?

The simple answer is minerals and metals. They were processed to create powder and then combined/suspended in liquid binders--including water, egg, and wax--to create paints!

For example, the colors red and yellow are often derived from ochre, a natural clay earth pigment. One method of making black paint was through the use of manganese.

Interesting. The blue paint looks particularly vivid. Do you know what was used to make that?

One way that the ancient Egyptians made blue was with the first known synthetic pigment which is now known as Egyptian blue. The color was produced by heating together quartz sand, copper, calcium oxide, and natron and then grinding the mixture into a powder.

Fragment of Cartonnage from Breast of Mummy

Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art

After death, Egyptians hoped to merge with both the sun-god Re and the king of the dead, Osiris. The deity resulting from the fusion of these two gods was called Re-Osiris. He was represented as a ram with horns and a sun disk on his head. This image was sometimes added to a coffin to help the deceased join with the gods.

The deceased merged with the sun-god Re to travel with the sun across the sky to the West, where the entrance to the afterlife was thought to lie. The departed combined with Osiris, king of the afterlife, to live eternally in the next world.

MEDIUM Cartonnage, pigment

Place Made: Egypt

DATES ca. 945–656 B.C.E.

DYNASTY Dynasty 22 to Dynasty 25 (probably)

PERIOD Third Intermediate Period

DIMENSIONS 9 1/4 x 10 11/16 x 1/4 in. (23.5 x 27.1 x 0.7 cm) (show scale)

COLLECTIONS Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art

ACCESSION NUMBER 37.1531E

CREDIT LINE Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund

CATALOGUE DESCRIPTION Fragment of cartonnage from the breast of a coffin, depicting a winged, ram-headed scarab; above this, a row of petals from a collar. Painted and varnished.

EXHIBITIONS

A Woman's Afterlife: Gender Transformation in Ancient Egypt

MUSEUM LOCATION This item is not on view

CAPTION Fragment of Cartonnage from Breast of Mummy, ca. 945–656 B.C.E. Cartonnage, pigment, 9 1/4 x 10 11/16 x 1/4 in. (23.5 x 27.1 x 0.7 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 37.1531E. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 37.1531E_PS4.jpg)

IMAGE overall, 37.1531E_PS4.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2016

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RIGHTS STATEMENT Creative Commons-BY

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