Egyptian Limestone False Door Relief Panel, Middle Kingdom, c. 1900-1750 B.C.

(False Door Relief Panel)

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Item No.
35.37548
Culture
Egypt, Middle Kingdom, c. 1900-1750 B.C. 
Item Details.
Rectangular panel from a false door stela carved in sunk relief with raised vertical borders framing a scene with a male figure wearing a knee-length kilt, collar and short wig, seated on a stool with lion-claw feet, holding a bolt of cloth in his left hand. Before him, a pedestal table with splayed feet, the top laden with vertical loaves. Traces of pigment to the collar, kilt and table.

The ancient Egyptians believed the soul of the departed could move in and out of the tomb using a ‘false door.’ This door was identified by a recessed surface with a symbolic entrance at its centre. In the Middle Kingdom, the false door design was combined with other elements or represented by a raised border and cornice above on rectangular stelae.

Provenance: Acquired in the mid 1980s-1990s. Private collection, Switzerland, thence by descent. Private collection, since the late 1990s. Literature: Cf. Hein, I., and Satzinger, H., Stelen des Mittleren Reiches II: einschliesslich der I. und II. zwischenzeit Kunsthistorisches Museum, Wien ägyptisch-orientalische sammlung, Corpus Antiquitatum Aegyptiacarum, Mainz am Rhein, 1993, pp.136-139 for a complete false door stela with a similar scene of the deceased seated before an offering table.

Display stand included

Size
28.7 cm L - 11 1/4 inches
Material
Limestone 
Condition
Part of a larger relief 
Categories
Egypt
Price.
US$ 3500
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