Self Portrait With The Coffin Of King Shoshenq II
- Setken Of Melbourne
- 1 day ago
- 3 min read
This is the first painting I have completed since my work of July last year, Study For The King’s House . Completing that piece marked the beginning of a six month hiatus and my longest period of not painting since I recommenced in 2012. That painting centres upon a statue of a pharaoh from the nineteenth dynasty while the one I present you with now also reflects on a pharaoh, this time from the later twenty first dynasty.
Both paintings emerged from visits to three Egyptian antiquities exhibitions held across 2024, which I was able to travel to thanks to the generosity of three patrons and collectors of my work that gifted me the trips as an early birthday present.
The painting features one of my favourite antiquity treasures – the falcon headed silver coffin of King Shoshenq II.
I first became aware of the coffin when I was working in the museum shop of the Gold Of The Pharaohs exhibition in Brisbane in 1988, a job I took as an unemployed actor. The exhibition travelled the world, but in Australia the coffin was not included as it was overseas: instead we had a giant poster of it included as part of the show and featured in the catalogue.
I was dying to see the whole coffin, but this was pre-internet days. My friend Helen travelled to Egypt in the following years and sent me the photographs she took on her visit to the Cairo Museum in the early ‘90’s. The travelling exhibition had ended and the coffin was back in Egypt. Even though the photos were a little blurry, the majesty of the piece was clear.
I did not get to see the piece in person until 2024 at one of the aforementioned exhibitions gifted to me by my collectors. It was included in the Rameses and the Gold Of The Gold Of The Pharaohs show in Sydney, along with many other Tanis treasures that were discovered with it by Egyptologist Pierre Montet. I had previously seen the other artefacts in my visit to the Cairo Museum in 2010.
The coffin is unusual in that the anthropomorphic shape has a falcon head rather than a human one, usually representing Ausar / Osiris. The falcon-headed convention is not entirely unique, but this version is especially stunning.
In taking this shape 21st Dynasty[1] King Shoshenq II aligns / identifies himself with the god Sokar. Sokar’s name means “adorned one” and “cutter” in the ancient language. He was considered to be a god of darkness and death; He was also associated with craftsmanship and the lunar metal silver[2], hence this coffin being entirely appropriate.
Considering that the inner coffin found inside the silver one was also falcon-headed[3], it is safe to say that King Shoshenq was a big Sokar fan!
The photo below is a reconstruction of Shoshenq’s tomb on display in Cairns, Queensland, Australia as part of their Tomb Of The Pharaohs installation. These are reproductions and by the photos they look exquisite.
One time Egyptologist Dr. Charles Muses conflated Sokar with Sopdu, another falcon deity and thought to be the deification of Sirius B[4].
The painting is my first self-portrait in a very long time. The image of me that it is based on is a photo taken by Kenton Miller at one of the other exhibitions from 2024, NGV’s Pharaoh.
There are elements in this work that stylistically resonate with my portrait of Jane Roberts from 2025, which is now in a private collection.
My use of blackline is apparent but with some of my usual conventions of total blacklining relaxed somewhat. My other convention, the technique of juxtaposing matt (background) and gloss (foreground) is present, but never that perceptible in photos.
[1] He reigned in the Third Immediate Period in an era when Egypt had again become fractured; it is thought that this was somewhere around 873 B.C.
[2] Sokar entry in Complete Encyclopedia of Egyptian Deities, p541 – 546, Dr. Tamara Siuda
[3] The coffin was wonderfully reconstructed and on display at the aforementioned exhibition along with the silver one
[4] The Lion Path, Dr. Charles Muses / Musaios 1996
Comments