Posted on 12/20/2017 5:29:09 PM PST by mairdie
The details of a mummified Egyptian woman's 1,800-year-old portrait have been mapped by scientists in incredible detail.
A new non-invasive technique allowed experts to take intricate scans of the second century portrait, revealing the materials and methods the artist used.
The images show that the ancient painter used beeswax as a base and plant dyes for colour during his work.
A number of different tools helped him to craft the noblewoman's likeness, including a fine painter's brush, a metal spoon and an engraver, the scans reveal.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Knowing the techniques for the Egyptian portrait is thrilling. These should be down your Ping alley. Best, Mary
Kind of eerie just a little bit.
Interesting - but there are a whole lot more and better portraits from the same period in the Cairo Museum. That was the Greek period and they were very big into lifelike portraits of the deceased on the casket.
I was just going to respond something similar to the above comment. I’ve only seen pictures of the Egyptian museums.
What’s exciting isn’t the particular portrait but the work they’re doing in identifying the artistic approach. Had a wonderful class at the Lorado Taft studio in using antique approaches like egg tempera and silverpoint, and this would have fit in perfectly.
Is that Pelosi’s mother?
And just when I had managed to forget her.
Thanks mairdie.
Thanks for the ping.
Spike Lee said Egyptians were black. What happened to the portrait?
My pleasure. Even though they are not pharaonic, I’ve always found those Roman-era mummy portraits to be poignant, probably because they feel more like us. Here’s a non-mummy example, a married couple from Pompeii.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vJvzaOesvpI/UznMTFXenxI/AAAAAAAAAUU/BtGpwOdN1cY/s1600/married+couple.jpg
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