Mummy portrait of a woman, tempera paint on wood
Kerke, Fayum; Roman, ca. 175–200 A.D.
Collected by Alfred Emerson, 1900.
5–2327
This panel demonstrates the synthesis of traditional and foreign elements in Graeco-Roman Egypt. Portrait panels were often painted during a person’s lifetime and hung on a wall as decoration. After the owner’s death, they were trimmed and fitted inside the outer mummy wrappings, as in dynastic times. However, with their realistic depiction of contemporary fashions, they are Roman in style.
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