The Deceased between Anubis and Osiris

The artwork

In the centre stands a man dressed in white, alive and serene; on his left Anubis, the jackal-headed god, protects him, and on the other side Osiris, king of the dead, awaits him. You receive it printed on handmade Amalfi paper, in a handmade frame.

• The white of the robe, the black of Anubis, the reds and golds of Osiris.
• A great ancient scene that gives character to a living room or a study.
• A gift for anyone who loves Egypt, its gods and its mysteries.

It is a shroud, the large linen cloth that wrapped the mummy: almost 1.8 metres tall, with a fringe at the bottom. It was painted in Roman Egypt between AD 50 and 150, in the same years in which other families had the portraits we call Fayum portraits painted on wooden panels. Whoever painted it brought two worlds together. The man has a real face, with light and shadow, and dresses like his contemporaries; the gods are drawn in the Egyptian manner, with sharp outlines and solid colours.

The scene tells of the welcome of the dead into the afterlife. Anubis, the god who guided and protected the dead, reaches out his arm to him; Osiris is wrapped in bandages like a mummy and wears the nemes, the headdress of the pharaohs. All three stand on a papyrus boat, and small scenes fill the sides. According to the Louvre in Paris, which holds it, it may come from the necropolis of Saqqara and may have been brought to France in 1830 by Baron Isidore Taylor, who reportedly found it in a sarcophagus.

In a living room it brings home the scene that two thousand years ago accompanied a man on his last journey. It is a gift for anyone who loves Egypt.

Unique quality material

Print on handmade Amalfi paper
Sheet size: 40 x 60 cm (15.7 x 23.6 in)
With frame: 42 x 62 cm (16.5 x 24.4 in)
Material: artwork printed on very fine handmade Amalfi paper with deckled edges
Frame: dark brown with gold fillet, handmade, with glass