Woman with a Hair Bun

The artwork

Her hair combed to the sides and gathered in a small bun on top of her head: this young woman chose to be portrayed with her most careful hairstyle. You receive it printed on handmade Amalfi paper, in a handmade frame.

• The high bun, the pearl earrings, the necklace of dark stones.
• An elegant portrait, lovely in a bedroom or a living room.
• A gift for a woman who loves fashion, or for anyone who loves Italy and Egypt.

She lived in Roman Egypt, between the first and third centuries AD, when the country was a province of Rome. Her face was painted on a thin wooden panel which, when she died, was placed over the mummy's face among the bandages. It is one of the portraits we call Fayum portraits, after the region of Egypt where many were found, and fewer than a thousand survive in the whole world.

Roman women's hairstyles changed with the fashion of the imperial court, which is why they help scholars to date these portraits today. Here the painter painted every detail with care: the face turned slightly to the right, the pearls at her ears, the necklace of dark stones, the coloured stripe of the clavus on her right shoulder and the mantle covering the left. These are the signs of a wealthy family that wanted to remember her this way.

The original is in Florence, in the Egyptian Museum of the National Archaeological Museum.

In a bedroom or a living room it brings home the elegance of a young woman who lived almost two thousand years ago. It is a gift for anyone who loves fashion and history, or who knows the treasures of the Florence museum.

Unique quality material

Print on handmade Amalfi paper
Sheet size: 29 x 42 cm (11.4 x 16.5 in)
With frame: 31 x 44 cm (12.2 x 17.3 in)
Material: artwork printed on very fine handmade Amalfi paper with deckled edges
Frame: dark brown with gold fillet, handmade, with glass