Mummy portrait of a woman
Medium:Encaustic (wax pigment) painting on wood panel
Geography: Hawwarat al-Maqda, al-Fayyum, Egypt
Date: about 1-200 CE
Period: Roman Imperial period
Dimensions:40.8 × 23.4 × 0.5 cm
Object number: 2018.52.1
Credit Line: This acquisition was made possible with the generous support of the Mona Campbell Fund and the Louise Hawley Stone Charitable Trust.
Gallery Location:Eaton Gallery of Rome: Roman Egypt
DescriptionIn 1912, Charles Currelly, the ROM's first director, purchased two mummy portraits from a Sotheby's London sale (this portrait and 918.20.1.) Excavated by the renowned Egyptologist Flinders Petrie, in the Fayum, Egypt in the late 1800's, Currelly kept one for the Museum and sold the other to the National Gallery of Canada. A century later, the ROM re-acquired the National Gallery's mummy portrait and the two "sisters" are now reunited.