Portrait Mask of a Mummified Young Man

Place of OriginEgypt

DateRoman Period (1st to 4th century CE)

DimensionsH: 7 7/8 in. (20 cm.); Max L (eyeliner): 1 3/4 in. (4.5 cm); Max W (eye): 13/16 in. (2.0 cm); Thickness (eyeliner): 1/4 in. (0.6 cm)

MediumPlaster and paint with glass eyes. Eyes cast in open, one-piece molds; cut on all edges and polished on all exposed surfaces.

ClassificationMummies and Mummy Cases

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1961.27

Not on View

DescriptionPair of eyes framed by eyeliners set in a plaster, linen-lined mummy mask in the likeness of a young man. Opaque white eyes, each with a circular brown iris outlined in a darker color (appearing black) with a large "black" pupil at its center; opaque dark blue eyeliners projecting outward beyond the convex surface of the eyes; both liners have flat edges and convex upper surfaces.

Label TextThe dating of plaster mummy masks largely depends on the interpretation of hairstyles; this example might consequently belong to the Trajanic period (early 2nd century CE).Published References

Kunstwerke der Antike, Münzen und Medaillen, Basel, May 13, 1961, lot 228.

Toledo Museum of Art Museum News, new series, vol. 5, no. 3, Autumn 1962, p. 52, repr.

"La Chronique des Arts," Supplement a la Gazette des Beaux-Arts, no. 1129, Fevrier 1963, p. 67.

Luckner, Kurt T., "The Art of Egypt, Part II," Toledo Museum of Art Museum News, vol. 14, 1971, p. 75, fig. 17.

Grose, David F., Early Ancient Glass: Core-formed, Rod-Formed, and Cast Vessels and Objects from the Late Bronze Age to the Early Roman Empire, 1600 B.C. to A.D. 50, New York, Hudson Hills Press in association with the Toledo Museum of Art, 1989, cat. no. 620, p. 360.

Peck, William H., Sandra E. Knudsen and Paula Reich, Egypt in Toledo: The Ancient Egyptian Collection at the Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, Toledo Museum of Art, 2011, p. 88, repr. (col.) pp. 11, 88.

Exhibition History

Toledo Museum of Art, The Egypt Experience: Secrets of the Tomb, 2010-2012.

Toledo Museum of Art, The Mummies: From Egypt to Toledo, February 3- May 6, 2018.