Portrait of a Woman

Portrait of a Woman
Roman from the province of Egypt
Tempera on panel, about A.D. 200
Purchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey, 1971.130
Toledo Museum of Art

Yes, once again I disappeared from the blogosphere. No excuses, and I do hope that I am back regularly now. I had some family visit recently and of course we went to my museum. A favorite of the collection was this portrait of a woman. What is so amazing to discover when looking a little further is that this portrait was made, around 200 A.D.! Funeral portraits were placed upon the head of mummies. They represented the human who once was. "When a person died, the portrait panel was placed over the face of the mummy with parts of the outermost wrapping holding it in place. This implies Egyptian beliefs about the afterlife." (metmuseum.org)

"The earliest so-called mummy portraits were painted about A.D. 50, but the practice ended in 392 when the Christian emperor Theodosius outlawed mummification." (Toledo Museum of Art)

Often referred to as Fayum portraits (as they are commonly found in the Faiyum Basin), they were painted on wood panel or directly on the linen mummy case. The paint was either egg tempera or encaustic.

Subway

Subway, 1950
George Tooker
egg tempera on composition board
18 1/8 x 36 1/8 in.
Whitney Museum of American Art



Another new discovery, I love George Tooker's urban scenes. His figures cut a generic, androgynous appearance, each nearly indistinguishable from the next except for lines and clothing choices made to distinguish man from woman. The figure in the foreground seems obviously a woman due to Tooker's choices for detail (dress, shoes and hair) but when she is broked down she still remains "gently androgynous" (An Interview with Tooker interview, Justin Spring). His approach to the city world is a depressing one, yet makes for thoughtful and considered subject matter in painting.

His work is often categorized as magic realism ("Term coined by German [art] critic Franz Roh in 1925 to describe the aspect of Neue Sachlichkeit characterized by sharp focus detail"--Chilvers, Concise Oxford dictionary of art & artists) or symbolic realism, both terms which Tooker was not a fan of but depending on they are interpreted his works sometimes falls into and out of the categorization. The art associated with terms was often tinged with surrealism (de Chirico)

Art: Revival of George Tooker's 'Magic Realism'