Mummy portrait of a woman
Mummy portrait of a woman
Date3rd century CE
MediumSycamore fig wood panel with tempera
Dimensionsoverall: 13 × 7 in. (33 × 17.8 cm)
frame: 24 1/2 × 16 1/2 in. (62.2 × 41.9 cm)
ClassificationPAINTINGS
Credit LineSBMA, Gift of Wright S. Ludington
Object number1959.18
Subject(s)
- portraits
- women
Collection
- Antiquity
Sub-Collection(s)
- Egyptian
On View
On viewLabel TextMummification, a process by which the body of the deceased was embalmed and wrapped in linen, was the physical counterpart to ancient Egyptian beliefs in the continued existence of the life-spirit (ka). In order to preserve the appearance as well as the body of the deceased, mummies were also provided with portrait-like funerary masks. During the Roman period, these masks took the form of painted wooden panels like the one seen here. These painted portraits are extraordinary examples of the syncretic or mixed culture of Roman Egypt because they combine a Greco-Roman approach to painting with Egyptian ideas about death and the afterlife. In this portrait, for example, we can interpret the illusion of human presence that the painting style achieves (felt most powerfully in the gaze) as an effort to communicate the continued existence of this woman’s life-spirit.
Egyptian
19th Dynasty, reign of Ramses II (1279-1213 BCE)
