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Elaborately Painted Shroud of Neferhotep, Son of Herrotiou

Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art

Neferhotep’s shroud bears a Roman-style portrait, similar to the panel portrait found on Demetrios’s mummy. Neferhotep thus avoided the cost of the wooden panel that Demetrios used, instead instructing the artists to paint directly on the shroud. In addition, Neferhotep’s artists used less-expensive tempera rather than the encaustic paint found in Demetrios’s portrait. When Neferhotep’s shroud was excavated by the French archaeologist Bernard Bruyère in 1948, parts of it were missing. The ultraviolet photograph reproduced here indicates darker areas of restoration done about 1970. The shroud entered the Brooklyn Museum’s collection in 1975.
MEDIUM Linen, pigment
DATES 100-225 C.E.
PERIOD Roman Period
DIMENSIONS 1/16 x 27 x 67 in. (0.2 x 68.6 x 170.2 cm) As mounted: 76 7/8 × 29 1/8 × 2 in. (195.3 × 74 × 5.1 cm)  (show scale)
ACCESSION NUMBER 75.114
CREDIT LINE Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund
CATALOGUE DESCRIPTION Painted linen shroud of Neferhotep, son of Herrotiou, depicted lying with a winged scarab above his head and a second at his feet; gilt laurel wreath over his head and gilt ring, in raised relief, on small figure of right hand. Quilt covering body is topped by a cavetto cornice. Mythological figures and inscriptions (cf. Vertical File) flank each side. Condition: Fragmentary edges; pieced together from one large section (neck to lower, winged sun disk) and smaller several sections.
MUSEUM LOCATION This item is not on view
CAPTION Elaborately Painted Shroud of Neferhotep, Son of Herrotiou, 100-225 C.E. Linen, pigment, 1/16 x 27 x 67 in. (0.2 x 68.6 x 170.2 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 75.114. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 75.114_PS1.jpg)
IMAGE overall, 75.114_PS1.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2007
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RIGHTS STATEMENT Creative Commons-BY
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