LOT 2018

Romano-Egyptian Style Fayum Portrait of a Woman

20TH CENTURY A.D.

18 1/2 x 13 1/4 in. (1.73 kg total, 47 x 33.8 cm including frame).

Portrait of a young woman, her head turned slightly to the right, with an oval face, thin almond-shaped eyes, and a large mouth with full lips; her curly hair arranged above her forehead in a series of rich curls; her clothing consisting of a pink tunic visible at the neck and shoulders; encaustic on wood. [No Reserve]

Private collection of Dr Fred Olsen (1891-1986) and Mrs Florence Ellen Olsen (née Quittenton, d.1996), Guilford, Connecticut, by at least 1961.

Exhibited at 'Coptic Art', The Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 5 December 1961-7 January 1962, no.L-380-2, loan number L61.711.

Coptic Art, Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines, Iowa, 16 February-1 April 1962, no.L-380-2.

Cf. Parlasca, K., Frenz, H.G., Ritratti di Mummie, Repertorio d’arte dell’Egitto Greco-Romano, Roma, 2003, no.698, for similar.

Fayum portraits, painted on wood or linen, applied to the mummies of the Graeco-Roman period, are one of the most wonderful legacies that the koiné of the Graeco-Roman world has left us. Due to the favourable climate enhancing the state of preservation, these encaustic paintings have left us an almost photographic testimony of the faces of the inhabitants of Roman Egypt.