themuseumwithoutwalls:MWW Artwork of the Day (3/16/16)Roman Egypt (1st-3rd c. CE)Portrait of Man wit
themuseumwithoutwalls:MWW Artwork of the Day (3/16/16)Roman Egypt (1st-3rd c. CE)Portrait of Man with Red Wine and Rose-petal Wreath (c. 220-250 CE)Encaustic on wood, 34 x 25 cm.The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los AngelesFayum mummy portraits is the name given to a large number of paintings from the first to third century. These are tempera or encaustic paintings, made with hot, pigmented wax on wooden panels, which were inserted into the mummies of the deceased. The surviving paintings are predominantly from the Fayum region in Roman Egypt, where the practice was common and the dry heat preserved many of the paintings until today.Until recently almost entirely overlooked by scholars and the public alike, these are startlingly realistic portraits of men and women of all ages. With their direct full gaze and strong presence, these portraits, at once Greco-Roman in their painting style and intrinsically Egyptian in their purpose, bring the inhabitants of ancient Egypt before us with compelling immediacy.Gazing out for eternity, the man depicted on this Romano-Egyptian mummy portrait holds the symbols of his salvation. He has a glass filled with red liquid, presumably wine. Wine, and the color red in general, was associated with life in Egyptian thought and more specifically with rebirth in a funerary context. The garland of pink flowers in his other hand marks the man as an initiate in the cult of the goddess Isis, who offered her followers a happy, carefree afterlife. Although scholars do not know where this portrait was excavated, several features match those of portraits from Er-Rubayat in the Fayum. The angular trimmed upper corners of the panel correspond to the way embalmers at this site cut down portrait panels to make them fit in the mummy wrappings. The portrait is painted in the frontal, unrealistic style favored at Er-Rubayat. Although it is difficult to convey three-dimensionality in the tempera technique, the Brooklyn Painter carefully used shadows and highlights to give a sense of depth to the man’s face. (adapted from multiple sources)For the complete set of 56 Faiyum portraits, visit this MWW Special Collection:* MWW Ancient/Medieval Art Galleryhttps://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.419770264795015.1073741855.309011485870894&type=3 -- source link