This gorgeous plaster funerary mask
reveals
that
the traditional Egyptian arts
continued to
flourish
even under Roman rule. In fact, the
Egyptian
style was reinvigorated with a healthy
dose
of
Roman classicism that elegantly merges
with
the
stylized traditions of Egypt. Our
portrait
head depicts a young man in the prime
of his
life.
His hair is arranged in a style
fashionable
among
Roman aristocrats in during the first
half of
the
first century AD, at which time Egypt
was
administered by agents of the Roman
emperors.
His facial features are rendered in an
idealizing
manner so that he might be able to
spend
eternity in perfect health. His skin
tones are
rendered in a light-brownish hue. His
mouth
is
small with a slightly fleshier lower
lip, his
nose
thin-bridged, his eyes brows,
plastically
rendered
as paint stripes and painted black, as
are the
horizontally arranged rows of tight
curls of
his
hair. His large, almond-shaped eyes
are
inlaid
with glass and sparkle in a manner
that
imbues
the face with a life-like, realistic
quality which
is
enhanced by the presence of painted
eye
lashes.
Objects such as our portrait were
placed
over the
heads of mummies of elite members of
Egypt’s
aristocracy during the Roman Imperial
Period.
These individuals may have been highly
placed
members of the bureaucracy of the
time, and
proclaimed their allegiance to Rome by
their
dress and coiffures. Such Egyptian
creations
find
their closest parallels in Roman
portraits in
marble of the period, and are to be
considered
as belonging to that rich tradition of
Roman
portraiture.
References:
For a very close parallel not only
with regard
to
the hair style but also with regard to
the skin
tones, see, London, The British Museum
30845:
Klaus Parlasca, Mumienporträts und
verwandte
Denkmäler (Wiesbaden 1966), pages 121
and 123
with plate 3, figure 1, which is
assigned to
Upper
Egypt and is tentatively dated to the
reign of
the
Roman Emperor Augustus; and London,
The
British Museum GRA1988.9-20.21: Klaus
Parlasca and Hellmut Seemann
[editors],
Augenblicke. Mujmienporträts und
ägyptische
Grabkunst aus römischer Zeit (Munich
1999),
pages 108-109, catalogue number 7, for
a
limestone head of a youthful Roman
excavated at
Hawara by Sir Flinders Petrie with a
coiffure
identical to ours. This example is
dated to
the
first half of the first century AD.
