EGYPTIAN LIMESTONE PAINTED FALSE DOOR OF ITET

EGYPTIAN LIMESTONE PAINTED FALSE DOOR OF ITET
End of Old Kingdom / Beginning of the First Intemediary period, Ca. 2181 - 2160 BCA beautiful Egyptian limestone false door. It belonged to Itet, priestess of the goddess Hathor and lady at the royal court. This false door has all the canonical parts: the outer cornice with inscriptions, the decorated torus, the upper lintel, the outer door jambs, the lower lintel and the inner jambs. On the jambs of the outer cornice, Itet is depicted in sunk relief standing up, looking inwards, with a lotus flower in her right hand. In the outer jambs, Itet is depicted seated and looking inwards, with a lotus flower in her right hand. Above her figures the hieroglyphic texts report her titles and name. In the space between the outer jambs, there is a panel with a scene in sunk relief: the deceased seated in front of the offering table. Between the inner jambs, there is a narrow niche suggesting the entrance to a door with a rolled-up mat (drum) above it. The hieroglyphic inscriptions contain the offering formulae to the gods Anubis and Ptah-Sokar in favour of the deceased, her name and her titles, for more see the report. For similar see: MET museum Accession Number: 12.183.8.Size: 520mm x 375mm; Weight: 11.63kgProvenance: Property of a London collector; formerly with Mayfair family S. A., acquired from a London professor in the late 1970s. This item has been cleared against the Art Loss Register database and comes with a confirmation letter. This item has been cleared against the Art Loss Register database and comes with a confirmation letter.This piece is accompanied by a report from Simone Musso, consultant curator for Egyptian antiquities at the Stibbert Museum, Florence, Italy, member of the Nuri Archaeological Expedition.