Egyptian Bronze Statuette of Osiris

This large statuette represents the mummy god Osiris with his shoulders raised and standing on a base. His hands emerge from his shroud holding the triple strap nekheka flabellum and the heka hook. He wears the atef crown, made of white hedjet miter from Upper Egypt, adorned with the uraeus, between two ostrich feathers placed on the ram’s horns. He is adorned with a false beard and an engraved usekh necklace.

Osiris is a god of the great Ennead. Son of Geb and Nut, he is brother of Seth, Isis (his wife), Nephthys and Horus. After being murdered by his brother Seth and brought back to life by Isis with the help of Anubis, he became a funerary deity ruling the underworld. In the Pyramid Texts, deceased kings are identified with him. It was only in the Middle Kingdom that immortality was no longer the privilege of the monarch, each deceased became an Osiris himself and could therefore access eternal life. Many sanctuaries have been dedicated to him, the most important being that of Abydos where the chief of the god was deposited within the Osireion. The great Osirian festivals took place in the month of Khoiak, between the withdrawal of the flood and the sowing.

Private collection, acquired in the 1950s.