This portrait belongs to a large group of similar works known as “Fayum portraits,” so-named for the region in northern Egypt in which many have been discovered. To create this man’s likeness, the artist painted a thin piece of wood with encaustic, or pigmented wax, a medium that not only gave the impression of three-dimensionality but also resisted fading and deterioration in the dry climate of Egypt. These highly individualized and lifelike portraits conveyed the wealth and status of the person depicted through clothing, jewelry, and other embellishments, such as the gold wreath of laurels worn by this man.
Lime (linden) wood, beeswax, pigments, gold, textile, and natural resin
Dimensions
41.9 × 24.1 × 0.2 cm (16 1/2 × 9 1/2 × 1/8 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of Emily Crane Chadbourne
Reference Number
1922.4799
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Thomas George Allen, A Handbook of the Egyptian Collection (Chicago: The Art Institute of Chicago, 1923), pp. 160–62 (ill.).
Art Institute of Chicago Bulletin, 17, 1923, p. 11 (illustration only).
Art Institute of Chicago, A Brief Illustrated Guide to the Collections (Art Institute of Chicago, 1935), p. 9.
Eugen Fischer and Gerhard Kittel, Das antike Weltjudentum, Forschungen zur Judenfrage 7 (Hanseatisch, 1943), p. 150–51, fig. 138.
Cornelius C. Vermeule III, “Greek and Roman Portraits in North American Collections Open to the Public: A Survey of Important Monumental Likenesses in Marble and Bronze Which Have Not Been Published Extensively,” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 108, 2 (1964), p. 103.
Klaus Parlasca, Mumienporträts und verwandte Denkmäler (Steiner, 1966), pp. 42, 176n.
David L. Thompson, “Four ‘Fayum’ Portraits in the Getty Museum,” J. Paul Getty Museum Journal 2 (1975), p. 92.
Klaus Parlasca, Ritratti di mummie, Repertorio d’arte dell’Egitto greco-romano, ed. A. Adriani. Series B vol. 2 (L’Erma di Bretschneider, 1977), p. 61, no. 373, pl. 90, fig. 3.
Louise Berge, “Two ‘Fayum’ Portraits,” Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago 72, 6 (Nov.–Dec. 1978), pp. 1–4, cover (ill.) (1922.4798); p. 2 (ill.).
Klaus Parlasca, Ritratti di mummie, Repertorio d’arte dell’Egitto greco-romano, ed. A. Adriani. Series B vol. 4 (L’Erma di Bretschneider, 2003), p. 160.
Robert S. Nelson, “The Art collecting of Emily Crane Chadbourne,” in To Inspire and Instruct: A History of Medieval Art In Midwestern Museums, edited by Christina Nielsen (Newcastle, 2008), pp. 137, 224.
Karen B. Alexander, “From Plaster to Stone: Ancient Art at the Art Institute of Chicago,” in Karen Manchester, Recasting the Past: Collecting and Presenting Antiquities at the Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago; New Haven: Yale University Press, 2012), p. 29, fig. 14.
Sandra E. Knudsen, with contributions by Rachel C. Sabino, “Cats. 155-156 Two Mummy Portraits: Curatorial Entry,” in Roman Art at the Art Institute of Chicago (Art Institute of Chicago, 2016).
Rachel C. Sabino, “Cat. 156 Mummy Portrait of a Man Wearing a Laurel Wreath: Technical Report,” in Roman Art at the Art Institute of Chicago (Art Institute of Chicago, 2016).
Rachel Sabino, Ken Sutherland, Emeline Pouyet, Federica Pozzi, and Marc Walton, “Surprise Encounters with Mummy Portraits at the Art Institute of Chicago,” AIC Paintings Specialty Group Postprints 31 (2018), 1-14.
K. Sutherland, R. Sabino, and F. Pozzi, “Challenges in the Characterization and Categorization of Binding Media in Mummy Portraits,” in Mummy Portraits of Roman Egypt: Emerging Research from the APPEAR Project, ed. M. Svoboda and C. Cartwright (J. Paul Getty Museum, 2020): pp. 8-15.
Art Institute of Chicago, Grave Goods from Ancient Cultures, November 19, 1991–May 17, 1992, no cat.
Art Institute of Chicago, Ancient Art Galleries, Gallery 156A, April 20, 1994-February 6, 2012.
Art Institute of Chicago, Of Gods and Glamour: The Mary and Michael Jaharis Galleries of Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Art, Gallery 152, April 30, 2013-August 24, 2017.
Emily Crane Chadbourne (1871- 1964), Paris, London, and Chicago; given to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1922.
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