The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of March 29, 2024

Funerary Portrait of a Young Girl

Funerary Portrait of a Young Girl

c. 25–37 CE
Overall: 39.4 x 17.4 cm (15 1/2 x 6 7/8 in.)
Location: not on view

Did You Know?

This painting can be dated based on the hairstyle popular at the end of the reign of Emperor Tiberius (reigned 14–37 CE).

Description

Traditional Egyptian burial practices continued well into Roman times. These lifelike portraits were made for a specific purpose: to cover the head of the mummified individual represented in the portrait. Typically, they were painted with encaustic (pigment mixed with beeswax) on wooden panels, as was the case here. Less frequently, they were painted directly onto the linen shrouds that covered the mummy. Hairstyles, jewelry, and clothing are carefully rendered according to contemporary fashion. Meticulously rendered details such as skin tone, facial hair, and bone structure suggest a keen sense of the subject's individuality, and with it, an inevitable sense of mortality. The addition of gilded details on the lips and jewelry is a rare detail that alludes to the individual's transformation in death into a blessed spirit, or akh, a being of light.
  • Hawara, Egypt
    1971-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Lee, Sherman E. "The Year in Review for 1971." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 59, no. 1 (1972). No. 4, Illus. p. 5 www.jstor.org
    Cooney, John D. "Portraits from Roman Egypt." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 59, no. 2 (Feb. 1972). pp. 51-52, fig. 1 and cover www.jstor.org
    La Chronique des Arts, suppl. to Gazette des Beaux-Arts, no. 1237 (February 1972). p. 70, fig. 246
    Thompson, David L. The Artists of the Mummy Portraits. [Malibu, Calif.]: J. Paul Getty Museum, 1976. fig. 18
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    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 18 archive.org
    Thompson, David L. Mummy Portraits in the J. Paul Getty Museum. Malibu, Calif: The Museum, 1982. p. 9, fig. 12
    Berger, Jacques-Edouard, Klaus Parlasca, and Rosario Pintaudi. El-Fayyum. Milano: F.M. Ricci, 1985. pp. 62-3
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1991. Reproduced: p. 12 archive.org
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Masterpieces from East and West. New York, NY: Rizzoli International, 1992. p. 22
    Doxiadis, Euphrosyne. The Mysterious Fayum Portraits: Faces from Ancient Egypt. London: Thames and Hudson, 1995. p. 68, no. 55, pp. 201-2
    Liddell, Marlane A. "Haunting Faces from the Banks of the Nile." Smithsonian Magazine. Nov. 1995. pp.134-139 p. 134
    Berman, Lawrence M., and Kenneth J. Bohač. Catalogue of Egyptian Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1999 Reproduced: p. 506; Mentioned: p. 506-7
    Windmuller-Luna, Kristen. “Africa & Byzantium: Spectacular treasures from diverse lands joined by deserts, seas, and rivers.” Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine vol. 64, no. 1 (2024): Cover, 4-7, 24. Reproduced: Cover; Mentioned: P. 4-6.
  • Year in Review: 1971. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 28, 1971-February 6, 1972).
  • {{cite web|title=Funerary Portrait of a Young Girl|url=false|author=|year=c. 25–37 CE|access-date=29 March 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1971.137