Right Eye from an Anthropoid Coffin
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Object Label
Egyptians described their gods as having gold skin and lapis-lazuli hair, eyebrows, and eyelids. Thus, the colorful glass of this eye imitates the costly blue stone, implying that the deceased passed all the necessary ordeals and is now among the gods and equated with Osiris. The blue glass encases a stone white of the eye, which contains a separately carved black pupil.
A minute detail of a trace of red paint on the inner canthus (or corner) of the eye adds yet another naturalistic touch. The wedge-shaped convex eye undoubtedly made the coffin appear more realistic by drawing attention to the gaze.
Caption
Right Eye from an Anthropoid Coffin, 1539–30 B.C.E.. Obsidian, crystalline limestone, glass, 13/16 x 2 5/16 x 1 in. (2.1 x 5.8 x 2.6 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 37.1951E. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 37.1951E_view1_PS2.jpg)
Gallery
Not on view
Gallery
Not on view
Title
Right Eye from an Anthropoid Coffin
Date
1539–30 B.C.E.
Period
New Kingdom or later
Geography
Place made: Egypt
Medium
Obsidian, crystalline limestone, glass
Classification
Dimensions
13/16 x 2 5/16 x 1 in. (2.1 x 5.8 x 2.6 cm)
Credit Line
Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund
Accession Number
37.1951E
Rights
Creative Commons-BY
You may download and use Brooklyn Museum images of this three-dimensional work in accordance with a Creative Commons license. Fair use, as understood under the United States Copyright Act, may also apply. Please include caption information from this page and credit the Brooklyn Museum. If you need a high resolution file, please fill out our online application form (charges apply). For further information about copyright, we recommend resources at the United States Library of Congress, Cornell University, Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums, and Copyright Watch. For more information about the Museum's rights project, including how rights types are assigned, please see our blog posts on copyright. If you have any information regarding this work and rights to it, please contact copyright@brooklynmuseum.org.
Frequent Art Questions
Ancient Egyptians are usually depicted with black eyeliner. Did they also use blue eyeliner?
No, I don't believe so. This eye was used as a coffin inlay.In ancient Egypt, there was no separate word for blue so dark blue could be interchangeable with black. In some cases, the use of blue was just a more expensive way to show what we call blue. The blue glass used here is imitating lapis lazuli.Interesting, thanks Rachel!Tell me more.
This eye would have been inlaid in the face of a human shaped coffin. It is made of obsidian, limestone, and blue glass.To see one these actually in a coffin, head up to the third floor. The cartonnage of Nespanetjerenpere has beautifully blue line inlaid glass eyes like these.In his case however, the blue stone is lapis lazuli, a beautiful blue stone that was incredibly valuable in the ancient world.What do they mean by “anthropoid coffin”?
The word "anthropoid" simply means person-shaped. In this case, it means that the coffin this eye would have been inlaid in was shaped like a body rather than, say, a rectangle.Got it! ThanksYou're welcome! We have an anthropoid coffin on view on the third floor, check A Woman's Afterlife for the coffin of Bensuipet!How did the museum acquire this?
This eye inlay came to this museum from the New York Historical Society when we acquired their collection of antiquities after they felt they could no longer house it.
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