Kárpáti Zoltán - Liptay Éva - Varga Ágota szerk.: A Szépművészeti Múzeum közleményei 101. (Budapest, 2004)

HEDVIG GYŐRY: On the Collars of the Gamhud Coffins

Lily(?) pattern A specific pattern appears on the neck-band of the Gamhud coffin inv. no. 51.2015 in Budapest: a hanging, slender flower with flaring petals resembling the Egyptian "lily" design. The poor condition of the paint makes it very hard to decide whether the flower is standing alone or paired with a mandrake fruit, as can be seen on a Gamhud coffin in Vienna, or it is alternating with a flower-bud symbol, like on a Cairo coffin.

36 In all cases, each floral motif is depicted in isolation with straight stalk, hanging from the upper dividing line. The strange pattern in four rows on the lid of coffin inv. no. 51.2018/1 may be best explained as a rough, distorted variant of the lily design just described above: against a red background, whitish, funnel-shaped patterns positioned upside down appear, the bottom of which is adorned with a couple of short, black, vertical strokes. The lily pattern is a conventional design with several archetypes,

37 which was used extensively in Ptolemaic and Roman Egypt on other fields of life.

38 Papyrus pattern Another rare pattern on the Gamhud coffins of the Museum of Fine Arts inv. nos. 51.1996 and 51.2017 is the papyrus motif, yet it occurs in two distinctive variations, and on the same collar. The papyrus flower is fashioned upside-down and accompanied by a bud motif. In the first version, both the papyrus flower and the bud are depicted as sitting on top of their own straight stalks, whereas their stalks are shown to be entwining in the other version. The former case is characterised by a red background colour and flowers and buds painted equally green or blue (with or without an outline), however, due to the loss of pigments, we can only guess as to the original colours on coffin inv. no. 51.1996, an example for the latter version, and presume that buds might have been painted blue or green. The papyrus pattern combined with bud motifs can be taken as the survival of an earlier tradition,

39 but it still prevailed during the Ptolemaic Period.

40 For instance, just Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum, inv. no. AS 6688; see Kama! 1908 (n. 1), 25-26. For Ekhnaton: The Cairo Museum, inv. no. CG 3873; see Davies 2001 (n. 20), pi. 56,2, Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, inv. no. 95,1407C; see Kueny 1979 (n. 20), 106-9, no. 125, with mandrake instead of bud. With elaborated lotus flower, see The Exhibition 1988-89 (n. 33), no. 123. E.g. elaborated: Andreu, Rutschowscaya, and Ziegler 1997 (n. 21), 206, no. 106: Edfu, beginning of the third century BC; stylised, e.g. C. Andrews, Egyptian Mummies, London 1984, 59: Dd-hr, Akhmim, circa 250 BC, and cartonnage set: John H. Taylor, Death and the Afterlife in Ancient Egypt, London 2001, no. 51; The Exhibition 1988-89 (n. 33), no. 135: Hawara, 150 AD. U. Wallenstein, Ägyptische Sammlung. Schlossmuseum Gotha, Gotha 1996, 74, no. 24; L. GordanRastelli, Ancient Egypt in "Little Paris". Leipzig University's Antiquities Collection, KMT 16 (2005), 68. Also on reliefs, e.g. Andreu, Rutschowscaya, and Ziegler 1997 (n. 21), 206, no. 106, Edfu, beginning of the third century BC; Egipto Millenario 1998 (n. 25), no. 214; L. Gordan and Rastelli, "Egypt on the Arno," KMT 15 (2005), 40: Ptolemaic, Florence, Archeology Museum.