Art Institute of Chicago (Egyptian) · funerary_equipment
Funerary Mask
Description
A funerary mask protected the head and chest of a mummified individual. Rather than presenting a portrait, a mask like this shows the deceased with idealized facial features and the golden skin of a god. At the bottom, kites (birds of prey) with outstretched wings flank divine figures including the ruler of the underworld, Osiris, who sits on a throne in the center. The kites represent Isis and Nephthys, who mourned the death of their brother Osiris. By extension, these goddesses acted as mourners for everyone transitioning from the world of the living to the realm of the reborn dead.
Cross-references (1)
- ARTIC-id 136740 tier-2
About this record's data
- From the source institution — accession, description, dimensions, and dating are as catalogued by Art Institute of Chicago (Egyptian).
- AI-inferred — the image-analysis panel (deities, names, signs) is machine-generated and may be wrong.
- Approximate location — most map points are plotted at the site centroid, not the exact findspot.
- Inferred links — cross-references marked with a match method other than explicit-source-field were matched by us, not stated by the source.