Canopic Jar with Cover
sculptor
Unknown
Date1570 BCE - 1085 BCE
Place MadeEgypt, Ancient & Byzantine World-Africa
MediumAlabaster
Dimensions35 cm (13 3/4 in.)
ClassificationsFunerary Containers
Credit LineIsabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston
Accession numberS15w7.a-b
eMuseum ID726565
EmbARK ObjectID15745
Original NumberS15w7
TMS Source ID4277
Last Updated8/14/24
Status
Not on viewWeb CommentaryCanopic jars preserved the internal organs of the deceased in ancient Egypt. Embalming the dead was an important part of Egyptian death rituals and ensured passage of the spirit into the afterlife. Isabella Stewart Gardner’s friend Joseph Lindon Smith, an artist who documented murals excavated at archaeological sites in Egypt for the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, helped her to acquire this jar in 1913.
BibliographyNotesGilbert Wendel Longstreet and Morris Carter. General Catalogue (Boston, 1935), p. 101. (Egyptian, Middle Kingdom or 18th Dynasty; cover is likely not original)
Betty Chamberlain. “Italian Rooms” in Alfred M. Frankfurter (ed). The Gardner Collection (New York, 1946), p. 9.
Clara Strauss. “Notes, Records, Comments.” Gardner Museum Calendar of Events 9, no. 32 (10 Apr. 1966), p. 2. (Egyptian, Middle Kingdom or 18th Dynasty)
Cornelius C. Vermeule III et al. Sculpture in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (Boston, 1977), p. 1, no. 1. (Egyptian, New Kingdom or later, 1570-1085 BCE)
Betty Chamberlain. “Italian Rooms” in Alfred M. Frankfurter (ed). The Gardner Collection (New York, 1946), p. 9.
Clara Strauss. “Notes, Records, Comments.” Gardner Museum Calendar of Events 9, no. 32 (10 Apr. 1966), p. 2. (Egyptian, Middle Kingdom or 18th Dynasty)
Cornelius C. Vermeule III et al. Sculpture in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (Boston, 1977), p. 1, no. 1. (Egyptian, New Kingdom or later, 1570-1085 BCE)
ProvenanceNotesPurchased by Isabella Stewart Gardner in Cairo for $325 in November 1913, through the painter Joseph Lindon Smith (1863-1950).
Object/Provenance
