L'Européenne

The artwork

The Louvre calls her L'Européenne, the European woman: a young face that looks as if it belonged to our own day, above a robe covered in gold. You receive it printed on handmade Amalfi paper, in a handmade frame.

• The large eyes, the hair held back by a jewel, the earrings and the gold leaf on the robe.
• A luminous portrait that brings light to a living room or a bedroom.
• An elegant gift for someone dear.

She was painted in Egypt between AD 100 and 150, when the country was a province of Rome, on a cedar panel, in encaustic, colours mixed with hot wax. Portraits like this one were placed over the face of the mummy, among the bandages, and today we call them Fayum portraits, after the region of Egypt where many were found.

The painter portrayed her with everything that made her elegant: the hair drawn back and held by a jewel, the earrings, a pearl necklace and another jewel on her breast. Then he covered her robe with gold leaf, the metal that does not decay and that the Egyptians linked to eternity. The nickname is the title under which she is catalogued by the Louvre in Paris, where the panel arrived in 1951.

In a living room or a bedroom it brings home a young woman of almost nineteen centuries ago, still full of light. It is an elegant and rare gift.

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