Head and Chest From a Sarcophagus
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Object Label
These mummy covers represent the extremes of wealth and poverty in Roman Egypt. The professionally crafted, gilded, and inlaid mummy cartonnage represents a woman whose life and death were spent in luxury. In contrast, the hand-modeled and naively painted terracotta mask was perhaps fashioned by the deceased herself or a family member. Though both covers protected the mummy adequately, the materials used demonstrate how poorer members of society could also provide, inexpensively, the objects necessary to reach the next world.
Caption
Head and Chest From a Sarcophagus, 4th century C.E.. Terracotta, pigment, 17 1/2 x 17 1/2 x 4 1/2 in. (44.5 x 44.5 x 11.4 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 83.29. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 83.29_PS1.jpg)
Gallery
Not on view
Gallery
Not on view
Title
Head and Chest From a Sarcophagus
Date
4th century C.E.
Period
Roman Period
Geography
Reportedly from: Egypt
Medium
Terracotta, pigment
Classification
Dimensions
17 1/2 x 17 1/2 x 4 1/2 in. (44.5 x 44.5 x 11.4 cm)
Credit Line
Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund
Accession Number
83.29
Rights
Creative Commons-BY
You may download and use Brooklyn Museum images of this three-dimensional work in accordance with a Creative Commons license. Fair use, as understood under the United States Copyright Act, may also apply. Please include caption information from this page and credit the Brooklyn Museum. If you need a high resolution file, please fill out our online application form (charges apply). For further information about copyright, we recommend resources at the United States Library of Congress, Cornell University, Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums, and Copyright Watch. For more information about the Museum's rights project, including how rights types are assigned, please see our blog posts on copyright. If you have any information regarding this work and rights to it, please contact copyright@brooklynmuseum.org.
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