THE ROMAN PERIOD c.

24 CE

Mummy Portrait of a woman

lempera painting canvas, height 42 cm, width 32.5 cm
on
Museum und Papyrussammlung
iancne Museen zu Berlin Stiftung Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Ägyptisches
-

found in Fayyum oasis, Hawara

n e portrait shows "Aline, also
known as Tonos, daughter
This
the age of 35 in "the year 10.
can
not attempt to
the surface and did
of parison. The Egyptians accepted faces two-
also showed their
be create the illusion of depth. They of her
hand is moulded. The tip

Herod who died at started dimensionally. Aline's face on the other

her hair or than her
on the grave stone. The Egyptians
gathered from an inscription seems to be further
forward than the head on
with each ruler, however the year 10 nose on the nose and
than the diffuse background. Highlights
new
their calendar count a n e w
pharaoh but to the e a r s or even the illusion the
here probably does not refer to any Egyptian
create
shadows under the chin
Aline died in 24 CE. The forehead as well as like it was still
that is the as if it could change
Roman emperor Triberius. If
case,
that time. face has a slightly moving surface,
to the fashion of like it in traditional
curls on her forehead correspond as if it were still
alive. There is nothing
Roman Italian and Greek merchants did breathing,
province,
was a
Egypt veterans lived in Al Egyptian art
Alexandria. Macedonian appeal. It does not
their business from interest in such surtace
customs and their artistic
habits Egyptian art had no
A person
their own but what the seen means.
Fayyum. They all brought Aline's shroud. It was found in show what the eye can see,
shown to
of this is social standing than a person
with them. One example shown to be tall has a higher
faces' of the s a m e kind. in
Al Fayyum together
with many other "mummy the scalps of several captives
officials had their be short. f a pharaoh was grasping
rulers and the highest heads with his other hand, it
In earlier centuries only mask of one hand and a club over their
swinging
decorated mask. The death enemies.
covered with a
real situation, but royal duty: defeating
mummy faces
a
does not represent a
rich specimen.The masks found in Al and unmoved. It
Tutankhamun is a particularly The facial skin is always taught, single-coloured,
Fayyum were not found in
about its condition, nothing
reveals nothing about the age, nothing
the graves of the highest
about the moment in which it was painted. Everything that could
ruling elite and they were filtered out in Egyptian
not made of expensive remind beholders of time and transience was
materials either. They were painting.
can be
wood or on Most of the ancient Egyptian stylistic idiosyncrasies
painted on

explained by the location where they were used. Private buildings were
cloth. Under Aline's cloth
made of wood and bricks and have not survived. We know little
clay
portrait were pieces of
about what could be seen on their walls. What has survived
are grave
canvas, which balanced
and temples built of stone. There a person's social
or
any unevenness of the complexes
and
face. The cloth must have religious significance was more important than his appearance,
lain over the head almost everything that was supposed to last for eternity was more important
than what was transient. It was a sacred art that created its own style,
like a flat picture.
the afterlife and
portrait in Gre- a style that corresponded more to the ideas about
It is a
to capture a
co-Roman style. It allows eternity. It was not a style that wanted to create portraits
us to name some of the person's earthly appearance
special characteristics of

portrait of a young man Egyptian painting in com-

Mummy

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