painting

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Object Type: painting
Museum number: 1889,1018.1
Description: Framed wooden panel with a painted portrait in tempera. The portrait is badly damaged, with more than half of the paint flaked and missing. What remains is part of the face and the shoulders of a woman dressed in a pink tunic and wearing pearl earrings. The morticed frame is in good condition, and still preserves the cord (of palm fibre) by which the portrait was suspended. A grooved channel at the front of the frame suggests it originally had a protective cover, now missing.
Cultures/periods: Roman
Production date: 50-70
Production place: Made in: Egypt
Excavator/field collector: Excavated by: Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie
Findspot: Excavated/Findspot: Hawara, tomb - the portrait was propped against the legs of the mummy, facing inwards
Materials: wood; fibre
Technique: painted
Dimensions: Height: 45.72 centimetres
Bibliographic references: Painting / Catalogue of the Greek, Etruscan & Roman Paintings & Mosaics in the British Museum: Paintings (85)
Location: On display (G69/dc10)
Exhibition history: Exhibited: 1997-1998 22 Oct-30 Apr, Italy, Rome, Fondazione Memmo, 'Ancient Faces'
Acquisition date: 1889
Department: Greek and Roman
Registration number: 1889,1018.1
Conservation: Treatment: 13 Oct 1998; Treatment: 07 May 1996

Free entry