Woman, know as 'Aline',
Trajanic, ca. 98 - 117 AD. Tempera on linen.
This image was found by R. von Kaufmann in 1892 with mummies of two
girls. The three are presumably mother and daughters.
At the mother's head was a stele, inscribed 'Aline, also called Tenos,
daughter of Herodas, kindly one, fare well!', and giving her age - 35 -
and the date; while this is not certain that the two belong together,
this seems very likely.
The portrait is painted directly on the shroud wrapped around the body,
but the immediacy of the woman's face suggest that hers was copied from
a portrait painted from life. All three paintings are unusual in being
lit from the right. That of 'Aline' also stands out among tempera
portraits in having coloured underpainting - light brown below the
flesh, and blackish-grey elsewhere. Her face is modelled by vivid linear
hatching strokes characteristic of the tempera technique, where the
paint dries too quickly to permit blending- in.
Her jewelry is rendered in gold leaf over stucco.
click here for a detail of the picture.
[picture 51 from the book]
