Tempera Painting – Egyptian – Mummy Portrait of a Woman (Scarlett el-Khazen)

•  A funerary portrait during the Roman occupation of Egypt generally found in the area of Faiyum near the southern Nile River.
• Our Faiyum portrait is dated 4th c..CE.– artist unknown —
• Color was used by painters and scribes known in Egypt as craftsmen rather than artists.
• Paintings divided into two categories:
  • Naturalistic purposes-landscapes/ daily life- painters superimposed and mixed colors at will.
  • Religious/sacred purposes- funeral or medical artworks-palette restricted six colors- never blended-placed only in juxtaposition to one another.
• Both categories greatly symbolic and associated with precious stones or metal, gold and silver-colors were used in cosmetics, medicine and scared worship, jewelry, amulets.
• The Romans assumed the practice of portrait mummification from the Egyptians. The portraits covered the faces and were mounted into the bands of cloth used to wrap the bodies. Some portraits were painted directly on the casket (cartonage). Individual ages ranged from child to adult and were both male and female.
•  What do you notice 1st about this portrait?  her large eyes. The use of kohl, black sulfides of lead, used by the Egyptians as cosmetic eyeliner, and used to prevent eye infections. The white pigment, known as ceruse, contained lead carbonate. The two white dots enliven the eyes, were referred to as ‘the mirrors of the soul’.
•  Also, we notice an elegant, simple, yet, timeless middle-aged woman. The lack of extra adornment emphasizes her face that dominates the entire panel. The layers of paint are very dense and they create the appearance of her smooth, glowing skin. that enhances with highlights.

Support: Is a thin sycamore wood panel, ideal for carving on the curved surfaces of the decorated cartons. (caskets) darker woods were chosen for men.

Media or surface:

• Is referred to as tempera a.k.a. egg tempera, a permanent, fast drying medium.
• It is a water-soluble mixture of hand ground pigments, and water- equally combined. Binders- usually egg yolks but could also be honey, milk, vinegar, wine, and later plant resins (gums) and plant sugars (gum arabic). In this painting only the content of the egg yolk was used. The membrane of the yolk was dangled over a dish and punctured to drain off the liquid inside. The white portion and the membranes were discarded. Pigment and egg yolk dry very quickly and cracks when exposed to the air. For this reason, artists add more water to maintain the consistency. The paint mixture cannot be stored. It is water resistant, but not water proof. It is not flexible. It may crack when painted on stiff boards or fall off when painted on canvas.
• Tempera paints have a finer gradation of tones and chalkier colors, giving a more restrained appearance.
• The six key-colored palette was applied with small diagonal brush strokes in a cross hatching pattern and then smoothed over in layers.

Palette:

• White mineral referred to as gypsum, a powdery plaster and water mixture, was initially applied as a sealant to the wood board. Then a black sketch was drawn with lampblack or charcoal, a pulverized burnt wood.
• Dark indigo/black color was used for the background and the underpinnings of her hair. Due to the lack of rare natural blue pigments, the Egyptians were the first to combine mineral compounds.
• Egyptian blue – Lapis lazuli-combined with copper and calcium. Romans referred to it as Alexandrian blue. (Painters and scribes also used a bright blue from crushed metamorphic rock known as lazulite – grinding it emphasized the surface of the granules, adding brightness to the blue later known as ultramarine blue, widely used in jewelry and amulets. A darker artificial blue tinted with green became known as cobalt, a by-product of copper and nickel ores – this color was the ancestor of the famous delft blue used by the Dutch to paint porcelain.)
• Khaki green clay or crushed and ground malachite, a copper carbonate, was used for her neck and upper torso.
• o-kcur  (ocher) – arsenic tri-sulfide, a natural occurring earth tone, used in prehistory art/culture. It is a dull yellow color of iron oxide and was applied to her tunic.
• Red realgar – arsenic di-sulfide, (powder of the mine) – another naturally occurring earth tone used in prehistory art/culture. It was prepared by crushing, grinding and squeezing. Once a deep red color was applied to her neck ribbon and the upper portion of her cape – is now pink.

The Romans adopted an ancient Egyptian belief in a spirit-double created at birth and released at death by supernatural powers, whereby, the soul could live eternally. Upon death, the portraits were wrapped in layered linen or attached onto the carton where they were left in the courtyard until the one remembered was gone or the casket decayed. It was then deposited in a grave at the ne-crop-o-lis (burial grounds).