Roman Period Egyptian Mummy Portrait Depicting a Woman, 1st Century CE
Paint on Wood
16.5 x 33 cm
6 1/2 x 13 in
6 1/2 x 13 in
X.0554
The so-called Faiyum portraits are the fascinatin result of cultural fusion between indigenous Egyptia and invading Roman cultural styles. The Romans had fascination with the longevity of Egyptian mummies an...
The so-called Faiyum portraits are the fascinatin result of cultural fusion between indigenous Egyptia and invading Roman cultural styles. The Romans had fascination with the longevity of Egyptian mummies an the immortality they promised, and introduced to th mummification process the relatively innovative and to Egypt revolutionary art style of perceive representationalism. The reign of Akhenaten had bee the only flirtation Egypt had had with such a style,
and the violent end of him and his short-lived dynast (including the possible murder of Tutankhamun)
heralded the return of traditional Egyptian styles.
This piece, 13 inches tall by 6.5 wide, is bot spectacular and highly significant to the developmen of Egyptian and Roman art styles. It has bee published in full as is appropriate for a piece o this importance (H.F. in Klaus Parlasca and Hellmu Seemann (editors), Augenblikcke. Mumienporträts un ägyptische Grabkunst aus römischer Zeit (Munich 1999),
pages 220-221, catalogue number 129). The piece i described below by Dr R.S. Bianchi:
The sitter of this engaging, life-like portrait is mature, full-figured woman with her head turne slightly to the left. Her visage is round wit wide-open, olive-dark eyes set into rather dee sockets, casting their glance upward and to the lef in the direction of her turned head. Her eyebrows ar full and the lashes of her eyes well defined as i lined with mascara. Her sensuous lips are closed an set above a prominent chin. The sensuality of th figure is enhanced by her fleshy, exposed neck, itsel lined with rings of Venus, an ancient sign of beaut and desirability. Her dark hair is arranged along he forehead in a series of short, loop-like curls, behin which are a series of horizontally arranged,
well-articulated braids, apparently tied into a bun a the back of the head. She is depicted wearing a chito dyed a grayish-purple color which is decorated wit wide, black clavi, or stripes, and finished at th seams in white. Over this and draped over bot shoulders is a thick mantle, dyed purple as well. He accessories include earrings featuring large, whit pearls and a gold necklace with flame-like dro pendants radiating over the top of her chiton.
The predominant purple color of her costume and it clavi identify our subject as an elite member o aristocratic society in Roman Egypt, purple being th color generally reserved for Roman emperors. Her gol necklace suggests both wealth and status, as does th presence of pearls in her earrings, this depictio being among the earliest documents of the use o pearls as a fashion accessory. The portrait can b securely dated to the Flavian Period of the Roma Empire on the basis of the style of the sitter' coiffure, because it reflects the taste and fashion o Roman empresses of that period.
This portrait belongs to classification of Faiyu portraits, so-called because Sir Flinders Petrie, th father of modern archaeology, first called attentio to the type at the site of Hawara in the Egyptia Faiyum, that rich agricultural district to th southwest of modern Cairo. Subsequent research ha shown that only ten percent of these elite Roman buried in Egypt possessed mummies equipped with suc portraits. The portraits were painted on wafer-thi panels of wood in either the encaustic or temper technique. The encaustic technique involves suspendin pigment in molten wax and applying it while still ho to a wooden panel. The tempera technique, which i rarer for these portraits, is employed for this pane and resembles the technique employed by artists of th West since the time of the Renaissance. As a result,
the artist of this panel has achieved a mastery o detail which includes a nascent chiaroscuro in whic highlights on the face and neck are given three-dimensional quality by means of the use o white. One has, therefore, correctly compared Faiyu portraits of the quality of this one under discussio to the Baroque portraits of both Rubens and Hals.
The portrait originally hung in the house of th sitter in much the same way that oil paintings an photographs of loved ones are still to be found in ou homes today. Upon death, her heirs carefully delivere the portrait to the funerary home where the priest intentionally cut the top in order to accommodate i more efficiently over the face of the mummy where i was placed. Traces of the mummy bandages used for tha fastening are still preserved, as are traces of th unguents and balms used in that process.
It is rare to find a Faiyum portrait of such qualit that has been published and featured in an exhibition,
as this one has been. The sitter exudes a warmth an immediacy which evokes the very best of Europea portraits and would be at home in any consummate ar collection.
and the violent end of him and his short-lived dynast (including the possible murder of Tutankhamun)
heralded the return of traditional Egyptian styles.
This piece, 13 inches tall by 6.5 wide, is bot spectacular and highly significant to the developmen of Egyptian and Roman art styles. It has bee published in full as is appropriate for a piece o this importance (H.F. in Klaus Parlasca and Hellmu Seemann (editors), Augenblikcke. Mumienporträts un ägyptische Grabkunst aus römischer Zeit (Munich 1999),
pages 220-221, catalogue number 129). The piece i described below by Dr R.S. Bianchi:
The sitter of this engaging, life-like portrait is mature, full-figured woman with her head turne slightly to the left. Her visage is round wit wide-open, olive-dark eyes set into rather dee sockets, casting their glance upward and to the lef in the direction of her turned head. Her eyebrows ar full and the lashes of her eyes well defined as i lined with mascara. Her sensuous lips are closed an set above a prominent chin. The sensuality of th figure is enhanced by her fleshy, exposed neck, itsel lined with rings of Venus, an ancient sign of beaut and desirability. Her dark hair is arranged along he forehead in a series of short, loop-like curls, behin which are a series of horizontally arranged,
well-articulated braids, apparently tied into a bun a the back of the head. She is depicted wearing a chito dyed a grayish-purple color which is decorated wit wide, black clavi, or stripes, and finished at th seams in white. Over this and draped over bot shoulders is a thick mantle, dyed purple as well. He accessories include earrings featuring large, whit pearls and a gold necklace with flame-like dro pendants radiating over the top of her chiton.
The predominant purple color of her costume and it clavi identify our subject as an elite member o aristocratic society in Roman Egypt, purple being th color generally reserved for Roman emperors. Her gol necklace suggests both wealth and status, as does th presence of pearls in her earrings, this depictio being among the earliest documents of the use o pearls as a fashion accessory. The portrait can b securely dated to the Flavian Period of the Roma Empire on the basis of the style of the sitter' coiffure, because it reflects the taste and fashion o Roman empresses of that period.
This portrait belongs to classification of Faiyu portraits, so-called because Sir Flinders Petrie, th father of modern archaeology, first called attentio to the type at the site of Hawara in the Egyptia Faiyum, that rich agricultural district to th southwest of modern Cairo. Subsequent research ha shown that only ten percent of these elite Roman buried in Egypt possessed mummies equipped with suc portraits. The portraits were painted on wafer-thi panels of wood in either the encaustic or temper technique. The encaustic technique involves suspendin pigment in molten wax and applying it while still ho to a wooden panel. The tempera technique, which i rarer for these portraits, is employed for this pane and resembles the technique employed by artists of th West since the time of the Renaissance. As a result,
the artist of this panel has achieved a mastery o detail which includes a nascent chiaroscuro in whic highlights on the face and neck are given three-dimensional quality by means of the use o white. One has, therefore, correctly compared Faiyu portraits of the quality of this one under discussio to the Baroque portraits of both Rubens and Hals.
The portrait originally hung in the house of th sitter in much the same way that oil paintings an photographs of loved ones are still to be found in ou homes today. Upon death, her heirs carefully delivere the portrait to the funerary home where the priest intentionally cut the top in order to accommodate i more efficiently over the face of the mummy where i was placed. Traces of the mummy bandages used for tha fastening are still preserved, as are traces of th unguents and balms used in that process.
It is rare to find a Faiyum portrait of such qualit that has been published and featured in an exhibition,
as this one has been. The sitter exudes a warmth an immediacy which evokes the very best of Europea portraits and would be at home in any consummate ar collection.