Mummy Portrait of a Woman with Earrings

Re-View Exhibition, Spring 2008, gallery label information:

These wooden panels were set into mummy wrappings, covering the face of the deceased. Their vibrant encaustic (wax-based) painting was well preserved by the dry Egyptian climate. Such mummy portraits, often called Fayum Portraits after the region where many were found, reflect the fusion of Egyptian funerary practices, Greek painting techniques, and Roman portrait traditions. Leaving an anchor for the soul on earth by placing a substitute representation of the deceased within the tomb was a long-standing practice in Egypt. The image did not necessarily bear a physical resemblance but showed the deceased as virtuous. The man's hair and beard are trimmed short, as on the marble head of a bearded man (1949.47.138) in the center of the gallery. The shape of the woman's portrait reveals that it comes from Antinoopolis, a city founded by the emperor Hadrian.

George M. A. Hanfmann, Roman Art: A Modern Survey of the Art of Imperial Rome, New York Graphi Society (Greenwich CT, New York and London, 1964), pg. 306, pl. 46

David Thompson, Mummy Portraits in the J. Paul Getty Museum, J. Paul Getty Museum (Malibu, CA, 1982), p. 5, fig. 6

Euphrosyne Doxiadis, The Mysterious Fayum Portraits: Faces from Middle Egypt, Harry N. Abrams, Inc. (New York, NY, 1995), pg 113, fig 85

James Cuno et al, Harvard's Art Museums: 100 Years of Collecting, Harvard University Art Museums/Harry N. Abrams, Inc. (Cambridge, MA, 1996), pp. 116 - 117

Rui Nakamura, "The Technique and Use of Encaustic in Ancient Roman Paintings : An Examination of One Example in the Fogg Museum with Reference to Pliny's Natural History", (2003), p. 409 - 418 (figs. 1a, 1b)

Prof. Ioli Kalavrezou, Byzantine Women and Their World, exh. cat., Harvard University Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 2003), p. 231/fig. 133

Stephan Wolohojian, ed., Harvard Art Museum/Handbook, exh. cat., ed. Stephan Wolohojian (Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2008)