The creator of this coffin is unknown, but was probably male. The goal of the ancient Egyptian artist was not to create a work of art, but rather to present scenes associated with life after death in order to ensure successful rebirth. The ancient Egyptians were deeply religious and had an overwhelming desire to secure and perpetuate in the afterlife the “good life” enjoyed on earth. It was the Egyptian artist’s duty to adhere to the universally understood visual iconography associated with that desire.
Standing over seven feet tall, this coffin is proportionately broad, indicating that the mummy of Pedi-Osiris had been elaborately prepared and wrapped in multiple layers of linen cloth. Pedi-Osiris was a priest of Osiris, god of the dead, associated with resurrection and the afterlife. The face on the coffin is gilded gold, with exotic black-lined eyes, an ornamental beard (a status symbol of dignitaries), an elaborate head-cloth painted the rich blue color of lapis-lazuli, numerous necklaces, and a vermilion cloak covered with a net of painted beads. On each shoulder, to assure eternal life, a baboon raises its paws and shrieks to cause the sun to rise. At the center of the cloak, Nut, goddess of the sky, kneels with her wings extended over a temple wall inscribed with hieroglyphs. Above Nut, the winged scarab Khepri pushes the morning sun to rise in the East. The scarab beetle is thought to move in the same pattern as the sun as it moves its dung ball across the ground. The Four Sons of Horus (the falcon god) are deities that protect the internal organs of the deceased, and are presented here in rectangular panels bordered in blue, red, and turquoise. At Khepri’s wingtips are human-headed Imseti (liver), and baboonheaded Hapi (lungs), and at Nut’s wingtips are jackal-headed Dua-mut-ef (stomach), and falcon-headed Qebeh-senu-ef (intestines). At the base of the coffin sit two images of jackals, representing Anubis, the god of embalming, whose task it was to glorify and preserve the dead. On the central back panel of the coffin, the body of Pedi-Osiris lies on a majestic, lion-shaped funeral bed.
This coffin was created with a strong sense of order and symmetry. The surface of the robe of Pedi-Osiris is organized and subdivided into pictorial panels using a number of geometric patterns and shapes. The various deities are depicted with consistent characteristics and each is given a ground line on which to stand or sit. The artist has also incorporated all three of the standard viewpoints used in Egyptian art: frontal, profile, and aerial. For example, Pedi-Osiris is shown in the same static, frontal pose often used in royal statuary to suggest the cessation of time. The deities on his robe are depicted in profile, which, to the Egyptian artist, meant the torso and eye are shown frontally, while the head and lower body are shown in profile. This viewpoint allowed the artist to present the most comprehensive view of the deity. The scarab beetle is shown using an aerial viewpoint.
The ancient Egyptians believed that death was a passageway to the afterlife, and that preserving and protecting the body were essential to that transition. The process of mummification was developed for the purpose of preserving the body, and could take up to ten weeks from death to burial. The body was dried in a mineral salt and was then washed in water from the Nile River. Brain tissue was removed through the nostril. The heart was left in the body, but other soft organs were removed through an incision in the abdomen and placed in canopic jars such as those shown beneath the funeral bed on Pedi-Osiris’s coffin. The body was then an ointed with oils, elaborately wrapped with strips of linen, and placed in the coffin to protect it. Instructions for the journey through the underworld to the afterlife were inscribed on the coffin in order to protect and assist the deceased in his journey.
