LATE PTOLEMAIC TO EARLY ROMAN PERIOD, CIRCA 1ST CENTURY B.C.-1ST CENTURY A.D.

Said to have been found near the Lahun pyramid of Senwosret II, this gilded cartonnage mummy mask painted with vibrant details is of a variety well known from Greco-Roman cemeteries in the Fayum region. Formed to fit over the head and shoulders of a mummy, the golden face indicates the transfiguration of the deceased. A thick red line separates the gilded face from the headdress, as on many similar masks (see the examples in Cairo and Boston, pp. 13-14 in M.S. Vasques, Crenças funérarias e identidade cultural no Egito Romano: Máscaras de múmia, PhD. diss., University of Sâo Paulo, vol. 2). The striped headdress mostly covers the floral necklace, here rendered in painted rows of elements, rather than in relief as on other examples of this date. The face is completely stylized, in contrast to veristic portraits of the same era and style in stucco or encaustic.