bavarikon4UDescription
The craft of mummification, i.e. the preservation of a body for a hoped-for eternal existence in the afterlife, has a long tradition in ancient Egypt. For protection, the body of the deceased was wrapped in many layers of linen bandages or in cardboard made of papyrus. The face was covered with a mummy mask. In Roman times, the mummy mask was replaced by a wooden board that was wrapped in the mummy bandages at the level of the head. The portrait of the deceased was painted on the section of the board that remained free.
Such mummy portraits were created in the period from the 1st to the 3rd century AD. They are characterised by intense colours, subtle shadings and overall a great closeness to life and liveliness. This is due not least to the luminosity of the wax colours, which were applied in an "encaustic" technique. The term is derived from the Greek word "enkaio - to burn in" and means that the painter had to heat the wax colours in order to be able to apply them in a liquid or at least viscous way.
Due to Egypt's dry climate, organic materials have survived very well until today; the shown wooden panel from the Munich Antiquities Collections is no exception. The mummy portrait was found in 1892 during excavations in Hawara, near the oasis of Fayyum.
Created in the years around 140 AD, the portrait shows a young man from the upper class of imperial Egypt. His lower garment, the tunica, has purple stripes, as a bagde of senatorial or equestrial rank. The luminosity of the colours is almost unbroken to this day and makes these mummy portraits a remarkable group of objects that can provide us with many details about the people of antiquity. Even if the portraits are certainly idealised to some extent, modern 3D reconstructions of some mummies, whose body and portrait were still found together, show a surprisingly exact match.
Looking into the eyes of the young man in our portrait, one understands the fascination of the Italian Pietro della Valle, who first came across such portraits in Sakkara in 1615 and enthused about their "most delicate sight in the world".