A Roman Portrait-Head from Medinet Madi

• Published in: Bulletin de l'Institut français d'archéologie orientale no. 116; pp. 11 - 21
• Main Authors: Ashour, Sobhi, Shueib, Sayed
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: IFAO - Institut français d’archéologie orientale 2016
• Subjects: Dionysiakoi Technitai; Artists of Dionysus; Medinet Madi; littérature alexandrine; sculptured portraits from Fayum; théâtre en Égypte gréco-romaine; sculpture in Greco-Roman Egypt; Alexandrian Literature; portraits sculptés du Fayoum; couronne de lierre; ivy wreath; theatre in Greco Roman Egypt; Narmouthis; artistes de Dionysos; sculpture en Égypte gréco-romaine
• ISSN: 0255-0962; 2429-2869
• DOI: 10.4000/bifao.636

This head with its individual features and portrait characteristics, represents a private person from Medinet Madi in Fayum, dated to latest years of Marcus Aurelius or Commodus reigns. The ivy wreath connects the subject to a theatrical performance, with more probable poetic career. Such subject is attested for the first time from Egypt, and interestingly from a Fayum town, where no evidence for a theatre or theatrical activity is known.The sculpture shows the Alexandrian stuccon technique, which perhaps was known in the Egyptian chora by 2nd century AD. The polychromic scheme used in addition to material suggest it local carving in Medinet Madi. Most important is that the portrait-head presents an interesting archaeological testimony for the vivid picture of theatrical activities and performance in Egypt during Ptolemaic and Roman ages, richly detailed in papyri and literary sources.