Portrait of a Mummified Young Woman

Expand

IIIFView PDF

Portrait of a Mummified Young Woman

Period Roman Period (Ancient Egyptian, 30 BCE - 330 CE)

Place of OriginEgypt, most likely Fayum (possibly Hawara)

Dateabout CE 50

Dimensions13 1/8 x 8 1/2 in. (33.3 x 21.6 cm)

MediumTempera on linden wood panel.

ClassificationPaintings

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

Object number

1971.130

On View

Toledo Museum of Art (2445 Monroe Street), Gallery, 02, Classic

DescriptionPainted panel, rectangular with rounded edges, depicting a full-faced woman with dark curly hair, parted in the middle. She wears a gold necklace with a crescent pendant, hoop earrings with pearls, and a dark chiton with wide, light-colored clavi. Her shoulders are draped in a white mantle. Surface exhibits areas of mastic resin and slight paint loss.

Label TextPainting—on walls, linen hangings, and wood panels—was a prized art form in ancient Greece and Rome, but few examples survive. In Egypt, however, paintings have sometimes been preserved in dry desert tombs, such as this naturalistic portrait of a candid, plump, and middle-aged woman dressed in her best. Greeks and Romans who lived in Egypt after it became a Roman province adapted the ancient Egyptian custom of mummy portraits. The textured lower edge may indicate where a frame was removed when this family portrait was inserted in mummy wrappings. The earliest Roman mummy portraits were painted about 50 CE, but the practice ended in 392 when the Christian emperor Theodosius outlawed mummification.Published ReferencesLuckner, Kurt T., "The art of Egypt, Part 2," Toledo Museum of Art Museum News, new series: vol. 14, no. 3, Fall 1971, p. 78-80, repr. fig. 22, and (col.) on cover.

"La Chronique des Arts," Gazette des Beaux-Arts, vol. 81, no. 1249, repr. p. 105.

Thompson, David L., "Four 'Fayum portraits' in the Getty Museum," The J. Paul Getty Museum Journal, II, 1975, p. 92.

Buck, Richard D., and Robert F. Feller, "The examination and treatment of a Fayum portrait," Conservation of paintings and the graphic arts, Lisbon Congress 1972, London (ICC), 1972, pp. 801-207, repr. fig. 1-5.

Parlasca, Klaus, Repertorio d'arte dell'egitto Greco-Romano, Serie B, vol. II, no. 247, p. 29, repr. (col.) Tav. c.

Thompson, David, Mummy Portraits in the J.Paul Getty Museum, Malibu, The J. Paul Getty Museum, 1982, p. 6, fig. 7.

Johnston-Feller, Ruth M. "Reflections on the phenomenon of fading" Journal of Coatings Technology, vol. 58, no. 736, May 1986, p. 331, fig. 2.

The Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo treasures, Toledo, 1995, p. 51, repr. (col.).

Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo Museum of Art Masterworks, Toledo, 2009, p. 83, repr. (col.).

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. 96, repr. (col.) p. 11, 96, (det.) p. 95.

Cucu, A.I., Corcoran, L.H., Perciaccante, A., Nerlich, A.G., & R. Bianucci., "Neuro-ophthalmological pathology in a ‘‘Portrait of a Young Woman’’ from Roman Egypt at the Toledo Museum of Art (USA)?", Ethics, Medicine and Public Health, vol. 32, August 2024, no. 100998, pp. 1-4.

Exhibition HistoryToledo, Toledo Museum of Art, The Egypt Experience: Secrets of the Tomb, October 29, 2010-January 8, 2012.Comparative ReferencesSee also Parlaska, Klaus, Mumien Porträts und Verwandte Denkmäler, Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag GMBH, 1966. The only monograph on Fayum portraits, a comprehensive catalogue of almost every portrait known.

See also Peck, William, Mummy Portraits from Roman Egypt, The Detroit Institute of Arts, 1967. A catalogue of an exhibition of most Fayuum portraits in American and Canadian collections.,

See also Shore, A.F., Portrait Painting from Roman Egypt, The British Museum, 1962.