Funerary Portrait of a Young Girl
Transforming the spirit—not beautifying the mortal body—may have been the purpose of adding golden lips and jewelry to this painting. Egyptian-style burial customs and arts persisted throughout Greek, Roman, and Byzantine rule over Egypt (305 BCE–641 CE). The woman depicted in this panel lived between cultures. Her or her family’s choice of mummification reflected historical Egyptian practices of creating a physical “duplicate” for the deceased’s soul to rest in, and their decision to color her lips gold here may symbolize how death transformed her into an akh (effective spirit). In contras...
Details
- Palette
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- Medium
- encaustic on linden wood
- Dimensions
- overall: height 0.394 m, width 0.174 m
- Department
- Egyptian and Ancient Near Eastern Art
- Holding institution
- Cleveland Museum of Art
- Image provider
- cleveland-museum-of-art
- License
- CC0-1.0
- Credit
- John L. Severance Fund
Art Genome Taxonomy
9 tags
Subject Matter
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Individual Portrait Both · 99%
The image presents one individualized female sitter in a frontal portrait, and the museum title identifies the work as a funerary portrait of a young girl.
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Face Visual · 99%
The sitter’s face dominates the composition, with large eyes and carefully modeled facial features directed toward the viewer.
Medium and Techniques
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Painting Both · 100%
The surface is visibly painted, and the museum classifies the work as Painting.
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Encaustic Metadata · 99%
The museum specifies encaustic on linden wood as the medium.
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Frontal Perspective Visual · 92%
The figure is presented in a strongly frontal format, with the head and upper body aligned toward the viewer rather than shown in profile or in an active scene.
Time Periods
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Ancient Art Metadata · 95%
The catalog date of approximately 25–37 CE places the work within the ancient period.
Geographic Regions
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Egyptian Art Metadata · 97%
The museum identifies Egypt, Roman Empire, late Tiberian as the place and historical context of origin.
Materials
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Wood Metadata · 99%
The support is identified in the medium description as linden wood.
Antiquities, Artifacts, and Religious Objects
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Funerary/Commemorative Object Metadata · 98%
The title and museum description identify the panel as a funerary portrait associated with burial and the deceased’s soul.
Source & rights
Unknown artist. Funerary Portrait of a Young Girl. Cleveland Museum of Art.