A large piece from a woven linen funerary shroud decorated with a polychrome painting of a female figure, most likely depicting Nut or Hathor. The figure is depicted head-on, with large, darkly outlined eyes looking directly forwards. While the eyes and eyebrows are painted in black, the rest of the facial features are outlined with a rich reddish-brown pigment, close in tone to the red of the skin. The face is framed by thick, tightly coiled hair, parted on both sides and falling in front of the shoulders in six distinct locs on either side. A white headband with a pattern of blue circles is tied around the crown of the head. The large ears, both of which stand in front of the hair, are each adorned with a gold and blue hoop earring. The woman sports a high-necked white dress with sleeves down to the elbow. The dress is patterned with red and blue bands of geometric designs and tied around the waist with a belt. Several necklaces of red, black, and blue beads are hung around the neck. Visible to the true right of the figure are three rows of kneeling adorants: a woman in a white dress, figure with a bovine head, and a large serpent. The background is patterned with red dots and between the arms and the body of the figure are drawn several black stars, possibly suggesting a cloak or blanket behind her.

Shrouds of this kind were designed to protect the mummified body of their owner, while also conveying semi-divine status in their transition to the afterlife. Egyptian shrouds from this period typically represent life-size images of either the god Osiris, ruler of the underworld, for male owners, or the sky goddesses Nut and Hathor for female owners (both of whom also play significant roles in funerary art and practices). Shrouds were laid directly on top of the mummified owner, completely enclosing their body. The painted imagery gave the body a new visage with which they could interface with the afterlife and with those performing their funerary rites. Linen was produced from the abundant flax plants in the Nile Valley, and so was a highly accessible material; however, it is highly frangible over time, meaning it is rare to find such an intact fragment as this today.

Note on the Provenance

Karl Heinrich Ulrich Anton Coray, ‘Han’ (1880-1974) was born in eastern Switzerland, the son of a doctor and a nurse. When his mother died, Coray was entrusted to St. Gallen orphanage. He went on to attend the evangelical institute of Unterstrass in Zurich, where he received his license to teach. Coray worked as a primary school teacher and tutor, and then as major of two private schools Zurich; at the age of thirty, he was considered an innovator for education. From 1916, Coray began to work as a gallerist in Zurich. He quickly made a name for himself as his business acumen, combined with his deep understanding of the Zeitgeist, meant that he held some earliest exhibitions of Van Gogh, Gaugin, Kandinsky, Klee, and many Dadaists. Coray was central to Zurich’s avant-garde circles, and his gallery was often visited by Arp, Janco, Lehmbruck, Tzara, Richter, and the two founders of the Cabaret Voltaire (Ball and Hennings). Coray was the first Swiss collector of African art, making his first acquisitions in 1917. The following economic crisis forced Coray to close his gallery in order to pay his debts, and he worked as a seller of books and art out of his library from 1917 to 1919.

In 1919, Coray married his second wife, the Dutch Theodora Stoop, ‘Dorrie’ (1895-1928). Stoop was the daughter of Adriaan Stoop, an engineer who made his fortune in oil, and Miente Stoop-Van Deventer. Stoop’s financial support enabled Coray to begin collecting with great zeal. His collection included 15th and 18th century European works, and many African items, most of which were purchased from Parisian dealer Paul Guillaume. He established a private museum in their villa in Erlenbach to display them; his goal was to expand it into a global museum of the history of art. Following Dorrie’s suicide in 1928, Coray was forced to sell most of his European collection at a dedicated sale in Berlin on 1 October 1930; many of his pieces ended up with public museums and other esteemed collectors.1 Coray moved to Agnuzzo, in the canton of Ticino, in 1930, here he met his third wife, and built the ‘Casa Coray’ to be a new home for his works. Despite continuing financial difficulties, Coray continued buying new pieces, acquiring Greek, Egyptian, Etruscan, Roman, Russian, Chinese, Pre-Colombian art, as well as expanding his European and African collections.

Coray’s collection is estimated to have held between 2,000 and 3,000 separate artworks. In the foreword for a 1966 exhibition of his collection, Coray wrote: 'When purchasing a work of art, I focus solely on its quality and condition. I was apparently born with a good sense of quality, which I have honed over many years through visiting museums, dealing with antique dealers and art collectors, and often through impulsive purchases. This has allowed me to assemble a collection that gives even the most discerning connoisseur little cause for doubt or even dismissal.'

Coray died on 23 October 1974, at the age of 94. The results of over sixty years of collecting were divided between his seven children and sold. Parts of his African collection are now located in the Völkerkundemuseum der Universität Zürich, and the Museum Rietberg, Zurich.

Shroud Fragment