Part of a larger whole:: recontextualizing the Charleston portrait

This thesis examines a female portrait painted on a wooden panel of unclear provenience from the corpus of over one thousand so-called Fayum mummy portraits created during the Roman period of Egypt (1st-mid 3rd century CE). The naturalistic, encaustic painting measures 36 x 16.2 cm, and depicts the woman wearing metropolitan clothing and jewelry in a three-quarter bust format. This thesis argues that the Charleston portrait dates from the 2nd to 3rd quarters of the 2nd century CE and likely originates from the Fayum basin, specifically either Ankyropolis or Hawara. The distinctive iconography of the laurel wreath suggests an intimate association with Isis, and further, suggests that the now-lost cartonnage was likely of the red-shroud type painted with Hellenic costume.