29 - ANCIENT EGYPTIAN AMULET OF DUAMUTEF

ANCIENT EGYPTIAN AMULET OF DUAMUTEF EGYPT, THIRD INTERMEDIATE PERIOD, C. 1069-715 B.C. wax covered terracotta, depicted as a mummified figure with a human body and jackals head, holding a jar 8.4cm long Provenance: Gustave Mustaki, Alexandria, Egypt; exported from Egypt to the United Kingdom circa 1950 Elsa McLellan, United Kingdom, by descent from the above Private collection, London, United Kingdom, by descent from the above Typically depicted in the form of canopic jars, Duamutef was one of the four sons of Horus and charged with protecting the stomach of the deceased for use in the afterlife. As canopic jars went out of fashion, wax (or wax covered) figures began to emerge to serve a similar function, without the need to hold the physical stomach. It is likely that figures such as this were covered in beeswax as it was symbolically associated with the ideas of renewal and vitality. For similar please see; L.M. Berman, Catalogue of Egyptian Art; The Cleveland Museum of Art (Cleveland, 1999), pp. 379-380, no. 287-288. In addition, there are also several examples in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; see accession numbers 25.3.159 and 25.3.154.