PORTRAIT OF WOMAN IN PINK
Your purchase will also include a FREE Egyptian Style Oil lamp, created by Potted History.
potted-history.co.uk/products/egyptian-frog-oil-lamp
The Fayum mummy portrait tradition fused Egyptian mummification practices with the realism of Greco-Roman portraiture, to preserve their subjects for eternity. A costly, time consuming process, only the elite in society were able to afford to have their relatives preserved in this way. There's definitely a formulaic element to these paintings- which were originally intended as an outer face covering on mummy cases. But an individual's status was indicated by their dress and jewellery.
This comparatively crudely painted woman is wearing a bright pink tunic, with blue-black clavi (applied vertical stripes on a garment). Under the tunic she wears a cream coloured garment with a fringed edge, visible on her left shoulder. She has pearl earrings, with a second pearl suspended below on a short chain. Around her neck she has a plaited gold chain with a miniature central pendant. Her hair is parted in the middle and drawn into a bun at the back of her neck, with wispy curls surrounding her face and the top of her head. Her eyes are exaggeratedly large, with heavy lids and dark bushy eyebrows. Her small gentle rosebud mouth seems at odds with the rather fierce looking eyes.
The original Roman -Egyptian mummy portrait is thought to have originated in er-Rubayat in Egypt, dated 170- 200 AD. It is now in the Paul Getty Museum. It was painted using tempera paint- which means paint made using pigments mixed in a water based medium or binder- for instance various resins, animal glues, gum arabic or milk/casein. The surface finish on these portraits is noticeably smoother than in the encaustic versions, as brushes of various size can be used to apply the paint rather than spatulas.
Modern Artists Acrylic is an excellent, non toxic substitute for the original paints used for such works. Many of the pigments still used today by professional artists are exactly the same earth colours used in history, just sourced and ground commercially, rather than by the individual painter in a pestle and mortar. Acrylic polymers act as the binding material for the colours.
This replica painting was painted on modern wooden ply gesso board, which provides a fine, smooth painting surface and a very durable support. Gesso board has been the favoured material for paintings for millennia, as it is such a good surface to work on, and the fine white surface allows the colours to remain bright and clear. It is extremely durable, as demonstrated by the number of paintings created on such boards still hanging in galleries all round the world.
SIZE
Painted gesso board 36.4 x 23.3 cm
It is ready to hang and framed in a bespoke solid wooden frame, with a dark “distressed” finish, to resemble bronze to emulate a simple classic Roman style frame. There is no glass required, as it has been finished with two layers of UVA protective matt varnish, to protect against light and mechanical damage. The outer dimensions of the framed work is 44.7 x 31.7cm wide by 2.8cm deep.
