Shroud of a Woman with a Diadem

The artwork

A diadem in her hair, a great gold collar and the Egyptian sign of life held between her fingers: this woman is ready for her last journey. You receive it printed on handmade Amalfi paper, in a handmade frame.

• The large-eyed face, the gold collar, the mantle and the jewelled hands.
• A solemn and precious image that gives character to a sitting room or a study.
• A gift for anyone who loves Egypt and its mysteries.

It is the upper part of a shroud, the linen cloth that wrapped the mummy, covered with a layer of stucco and painted in tempera. It comes from Antinoopolis, the city that the emperor Hadrian founded on the Nile, where it was found in 1907, and was painted between AD 200 and 249. The face recalls the portraits we call Fayum portraits, the painted faces placed on mummies.

The woman wears a diadem and the crown of justification, the wreath given to the dead who were found righteous before Osiris, the god who judged souls. In one hand she holds the ankh, the cross with a loop that the Egyptians saw as the sign of life, and above her runs a row of sacred cobras, a symbol of protection. The fragment reached the Louvre in Paris in 1953.

In a sitting room it brings home a woman of Roman Egypt dressed for eternity. It is a precious gift for anyone who loves ancient history.

Unique quality material

Print on handmade Amalfi paper
Sheet size: 40 x 60 cm (15.7 x 23.6 in)
With frame: 42 x 62 cm (16.5 x 24.4 in)
Material: artwork printed on very fine handmade Amalfi paper with deckled edges
Frame: dark brown with gold fillet, handmade, with glass