MUMMY PORTRAIT OF A GIRL Egypt, er-Rubayat, ca. 3rd–4th century A.D.

MUMMY PORTRAIT OF A GIRL

Egypt, er-Rubayat, ca. 3rd–4th century A.D.
Tempera on wooden panel. Stylized frontal depiction of a girl with black hair, with a so-called "sidelock of youth" over the right ear. An amulet case around her neck. White chiton with narrow burgundy-red clavi. On the reverse, collection stamp "Sammlung Theodor Graf", partly illegible stamp "Bundesdenkmalamt", numbered paper label "145D", and various pencil annotations "No. 8"; "22 26/7"; "109", as well as an annotation in red chalk "8 Sel" (?). In a wooden frame with hinged glass cover. The reverse of the frame with partly difficult-to-read pencil annotations and the owner’s inscription "L. Richter".
25.5 × 14 cm.
Overpainting. Restorations. Traces of mounting. Continuous vertical crack through the center. Minor losses to the paintwork.

Provenance:
- Collection of Theodor Graf Wien (1840–1903), Collection 2.
- Bruno Kertzmar, Art Dealership, Vienna, ca. 1930.
- Collection of Carl Louis Richter, presumably acquired from the above in the early 1930s.
- By descent into a private collection in Germany.

Literature:
Klaus Parlasca: Ritratti di Mummie. Rome 1980, Series B, Vol. III, No. 663, p. 64, fig. Plate 16.

Painted mummy portraits on wooden panels occupy a special place within Egyptian funerary art and began to appear with the onset of Roman rule in Egypt. Their exceptionally lifelike and individualized depictions of the deceased continue to exert a particular fascination to this day. Painted in encaustic or tempera, the portraits were inserted into the linen wrappings over the face of the mummy.

Mummy portraits came to widespread public attention towards the end of the 19th century, due above all to the Viennese art dealer and collector Theodor Graf (1840–1903), from whose collection the present portrait originates. Graf, who operated a trading establishment in Cairo and was already known as a dealer in papyri, Coptic textiles and Egyptian antiquities, recognized the cultural and historical significance of these finds at an early stage. Through his own investigations and targeted acquisitions, he assembled an extensive collection of more than 330 mummy portraits. The majority came from er-Rubayat, as did the present portrait.

Beginning in 1888, Theodor Graf presented his collection in widely acclaimed sales exhibitions in Europe and the United States. These exhibitions played a significant role in bringing mummy portraits into numerous important museum and private collections and in introducing them to a broad public for the first time.