Funerary Portrait of a Woman (c. 138–92 CE): Art, History and Details

Funerary Portrait of a Woman (c. 138–92 CE) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

So-called mummy portraits were apparently painted during the owners' lives and hung in their homes. At the time of the owner's death, the portrait was taken down, cut from its frame, and trimmed to fit the deceased's mummy, to which it was bound. It was at that time also that the gilding on the center painting was added.

Object facts

• Title: Funerary Portrait of a Woman
• Date: c. 138–92 CE
• Culture: Egypt, Roman Empire, Antonine
• Type: Painting
• Technique: encaustic on linen
• Dimensions: Overall: 26 x 19 cm (10 1/4 x 7 1/2 in.)
• Collection: Egypt - Greco-Roman
• Department: Egyptian and Ancient Near Eastern Art
• Accession number: 1971.136

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Lee, Sherman E. "The Year in Review for 1971." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 59, no. 1 (1972).
• Cooney, John D. “Portraits from Roman Egypt.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 59, no. 2 (February 1972): 51–55.
• The Art Quarterly XXXV No. 1 (Spring 1972).

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.