443. Inlay in the Form of a face

Condition

Fully preserved. Covered with greenish weathering.

Description

Head facing forward. All facial features are rendered but not very crisply. Accentuated eyebrows; almond-shaped, oval eyes; smooth cheeks; heavy lips; large ears; long neck terminating in a flat end. Upper and lower ends are flat and smooth, and sides are tapered toward the back side, which is smooth and flat.

Comments and Comparanda

On Pharaonic Egyptian glass inlays in general, see comments on cat. 442. Frontal depiction of the face is quite rare in Egyptian art, mostly used as a hieroglyph with the sound value ḥr (meaning “on, around, over, for”). This piece is small and may have been used in an inlaid band of inscriptions in a miniature shrine, or may have been the inlaid face of an ushabti figurine (on glass in statuettes in general, see Cooney 1960, pp. 21–29, fig. 19).

Provenance

By 1974–1988, Erwin Oppenländer, 1901–1988 (Waiblingen, Germany), by inheritance to his son, Gert Oppenländer, 1988; 1988–2003, Gert Oppenländer (Waiblingen, Germany), sold to the J. Paul Getty Museum, 2003

Bibliography

von Saldern et al. 1974, p. 25, no. 29; p. 27, plate no. 29.

Exhibitions

Gläser der Antike: Sammlung Erwin Oppenländer (Hamburg and Cologne, 1974–1975)