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Anthropoid Sarcophagus of Egyptian Type with a Male Face
Unknown · Not dated in the museum record (Phoenician anthropoid type of the fifth to fourth century BC)
A man's face, framed by a smooth Egyptian-style headcloth, emerges from a lid shaped like a wrapped mummy. The rest of the body is reduced to a plain, gently swelling surface without arms, feet or ornament, so that all attention falls on the features: broad cheeks, a straight nose, full lips and calm eyes carved in white marble. The lid is more than two metres long. Look at the contrast between the Egyptian outline of the whole and the Greek handling of the face, which could belong to a statue from the Aegean.
Phoenician nobles of Sidon adopted the anthropoid sarcophagus from Egypt in the fifth century before Christ and then had them made in Greek marble by carvers who gave the faces a Greek look. Dozens have been found in the cemeteries around the city. According to the museum record this one was discovered near the sarcophagus of King Eshmunazar displayed in this room, though the circumstances of its arrival at the Louvre are not documented. Its very plainness shows how the type moved away from its Egyptian model towards pure portraiture.
Did You Know? Sarcophagi of this type were carved from Greek marble by sculptors trained in Greek workshops, yet the shape they copied was the Egyptian mummy case.
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