  About the Artwork
  
  
  Painted on a wooden panel, this mummy portrait was placed over the face of a mummified body and secured to it with linen wrapping.
Many mummy portraits were created in a technique called “encaustic,” in which the pigment was mixed with melted wax and applied warm to the wood panel with a small spatula. The use of vivid colors in a wax medium enhances the realistic quality of the portrait.
  
  
  Title
  Head of a Woman
  
  
  Artwork Date
  between 130 and 160 CE
  
  Artist
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  Life Dates
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  Nationality
  
  
  
  Please note:
  Definitions for nationality may vary significantly, depending on chronology and world events.
  Some definitions include:
  Belonging to a people having a common origin based on a geography and/or descent and/or tradition and/or culture and/or religion and/or language, or sharing membership in a legally defined nation.
  
  
  
  Egyptian
  
  
  
  Culture
  
  
  
  Please note:
  Cultures may be defined by the language, customs, religious beliefs, social norms, and material traits of a group.
  
  
  
  
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  Medium
  Encaustic with gilded stucco on wood panel
  
  
  Dimensions
  Unframed: 17 5/8 × 9 3/4 inches (44.8 × 24.8 cm)
  Framed: 22 × 13 3/16 × 2 1/2 inches (55.9 × 33.5 × 6.4 cm)
  
  
  Classification
  Paintings
  
  
  Department
  African Art
  
  
  Credit
  Gift of Julius H. Haass
  
  
  
  Accession Number
  
  
  
  This unique number is assigned to an individual artwork as part of the cataloguing process at the time of entry into the permanent collection.
  Most frequently, accession numbers begin with the year in which the artwork entered the museum’s holdings.
  For example, 2008.3 refers to the year of acquisition and notes that it was the 3rd of that year. The DIA has a few additional systems—no longer assigned—that identify specific donors or museum patronage groups.
  
  
  
  25.2
  
  
  Copyright
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