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Lot Essay
Strikingly painted in encaustic on linen and embellished with gilded stucco motifs, this well-preserved funerary portrait of a young woman reflects Egyptian and Roman influence in style and symbolism. The shroud may be attributed on stylistic grounds to Antinoöpolis (modern-day Sheikh Ibada), the city in Middle Egypt founded by Emperor Hadrian circa 130 A.D. in honor of his beloved, Antinous, who drowned in the Nile when visiting Egypt. Excavated from 1896 to 1911 by Albert Gayet, a large number of mummies were discovered covered in similar shrouds painted with naturalistic portraits of their owners. In this portrait, the woman’s face is dominated by her large dark eyes with heavy eyebrows, features which allowed the art historian D.L. Thompson, in private correspondence from 1978, to recognize the hand of “Painter L,” the artist (or workshop) at ancient Antinoöpolis responsible for the production of other impressive funerary shrouds, including two notably now in the Louvre (inv. nos. AF 6842 and P 215, figs. 28-29 in Thompson, Mummy Portraits in the J. Paul Getty Museum) and one in Athens, Benaki Museum (inv. no. 6878, Thompson, op. cit., fig. 30).
This shroud has been subject to debate over the date, with suggestions ranging from ca. 100 A.D. (M. Page-Gasser and A.B. Weise, eds., op. cit.) to the mid-2nd century (K. Parlasca and H.G. Frenz, op. cit.) and 3rd century (L. Martin, op. cit.). A mid-3rd century date has been adopted here, following the opinions of Thompson, Martin, and Ortiz-García (op. cit.). Thompson suggested that this painter, operating in his opinion between 225-250 A.D., belonged to the second generation of painters at the site, who had transitioned from producing panel portraits on wood to painting on shrouds. The perfunctory treatment of hands indicated to Thompson that these painters were facing the new challenge of rendering the body below the neck. The decoration on the shroud continues onto the sides, as the entire shroud would have enveloped the body, enabling the transformation of the owner into an eternal divine being.
The high status of the subject of this portrait is indicated through her rich gold jewelry, including a heavy torque around her neck that features a stone (perhaps beryl), a round brooch or buckle, and abundant rings on her fingers. The impression of wealth is further highlighted through the addition of gilding to details on the lower body, as well as on applied stucco figures of a winged sun-disk, and a series of standing deities that are to be interpreted as the four sons of Horus.
A unique feature of this depiction is what Ortiz-García has interpreted as a “torch linked to an underworld enveloped in darkness” held in her right hand (op. cit., p. 303). A recent study of the use of torches in Greco-Roman Egypt discusses this shroud as perhaps representing the deceased as Isis-Demeter, emphasizing her connection to the Pharaonic harvest deity Renenutet (see M. M. Abdel Hamid, op. cit.). More typical of this category of funerary shrouds is the funerary wreath in her left hand, rendered in a vibrant pink. According to Ortiz-García, who has conducted the most exhaustive study of painted Roman funerary shrouds, the deceased is conceived of as standing within an Osirian chapel, surmounted by a cornice with gilded uraei (missing here). The bead-net covering the lower body is also Osirian in nature, a holdover from earlier mummification traditions employing an actual network of faience beads (see C.-B. Arnst, “Vernetzung: Zur Symbolik des Mumiennetzes,” in M. Fitzenreiter, ed., Die ägyptische Mumie: Ein Phänomen der Kulturgeschichte, pp. 79-94).
This shroud has been subject to debate over the date, with suggestions ranging from ca. 100 A.D. (M. Page-Gasser and A.B. Weise, eds., op. cit.) to the mid-2nd century (K. Parlasca and H.G. Frenz, op. cit.) and 3rd century (L. Martin, op. cit.). A mid-3rd century date has been adopted here, following the opinions of Thompson, Martin, and Ortiz-García (op. cit.). Thompson suggested that this painter, operating in his opinion between 225-250 A.D., belonged to the second generation of painters at the site, who had transitioned from producing panel portraits on wood to painting on shrouds. The perfunctory treatment of hands indicated to Thompson that these painters were facing the new challenge of rendering the body below the neck. The decoration on the shroud continues onto the sides, as the entire shroud would have enveloped the body, enabling the transformation of the owner into an eternal divine being.
The high status of the subject of this portrait is indicated through her rich gold jewelry, including a heavy torque around her neck that features a stone (perhaps beryl), a round brooch or buckle, and abundant rings on her fingers. The impression of wealth is further highlighted through the addition of gilding to details on the lower body, as well as on applied stucco figures of a winged sun-disk, and a series of standing deities that are to be interpreted as the four sons of Horus.
A unique feature of this depiction is what Ortiz-García has interpreted as a “torch linked to an underworld enveloped in darkness” held in her right hand (op. cit., p. 303). A recent study of the use of torches in Greco-Roman Egypt discusses this shroud as perhaps representing the deceased as Isis-Demeter, emphasizing her connection to the Pharaonic harvest deity Renenutet (see M. M. Abdel Hamid, op. cit.). More typical of this category of funerary shrouds is the funerary wreath in her left hand, rendered in a vibrant pink. According to Ortiz-García, who has conducted the most exhaustive study of painted Roman funerary shrouds, the deceased is conceived of as standing within an Osirian chapel, surmounted by a cornice with gilded uraei (missing here). The bead-net covering the lower body is also Osirian in nature, a holdover from earlier mummification traditions employing an actual network of faience beads (see C.-B. Arnst, “Vernetzung: Zur Symbolik des Mumiennetzes,” in M. Fitzenreiter, ed., Die ägyptische Mumie: Ein Phänomen der Kulturgeschichte, pp. 79-94).