Brooklyn Museum: Egyptian, Classical, and Ancient Middle Eastern Art: Inner Cartonnage of Gautseshenu

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Inner Cartonnage of Gautseshenu

Osiris, lord of the underworld, appears seated on a throne at both sides of the chest of this cartonnage. At the right he presides over the Judgment of the soul of the woman Gautseshenu. Anubis, the jackal-headed conductor of the dead, is also at the right, carefully weighing Gautseshenu's heart. Beneath the great winged scarab are the "Four Sons of Horus," minor gods who protected specific mummified organs of the body.

Many other, nonfunerary deities and their insignias appear. Indeed, the illustrations provide a Who's Who of Egyptian gods. A prominent solar motif consists of Khepri, the winged beetle, whose form represents the sun in the morning. In the center of the cartonnage is a vignette of the solar boat of the god Sokar situated in the sanctuary at his temple. Yet another form of the sun god, Horus the Behdetite, flanks the legs with outstretched wings. Thoth, the god of intellectual activity, stalks the lower right side in the form of an ibis, and a ram-headed god appears on both lower sides.

The name Gautseshenu means "bouquet of lotuses." The Egyptian word seshen ("lotus") is the origin of the womens's names Susan and Suzanne.

Medium: Linen, plaster, pigment
Place Made: Thebes, Egypt
Dates: 700-650 B.C.E.
Dynasty: late XXV Dynasty-early XXVI Dynasty
Period: Third Intermediate Period-Late Period
Dimensions: 64 3/16 x 14 15/16 in. (163 x 38 cm)
Collections: Egyptian, Classical, and Ancient Middle Eastern Art
Museum Location: This item is on view in Egypt Reborn: Art for Eternity, Temples and Tombs, Martha A. and Robert S. Rubin Gallery, 3rd Floor
Accession Number: 34.1223
Credit Line: Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund
Image: Overall, 34.1223.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph

Collections: Egyptian, Classical, and Ancient Middle Eastern Art: Inner Cartonnage of Gautseshenu