Painted linen with male portrait. Ancient Egypt, Ptolemaic period, 332-30 BC.

Painted linen with male portrait. Ancient Egypt, Ptolemaic period, 332-30 BC.
Linen with traces of polychrome.
With export permit.
Provenance: Charles Dikran Kelekian, New York; private collection of Leo and Blanche Manso, New York, acquired from the above; private collection, acquired May 2021; Sotheby's London, July 5, 2024, lot 128.
Retains old labels and handwritten inscription associated with its collection history.
Measurements: 39.5 x 15.5 cm, 60.8 x 34.3 cm (with frame).

Fragment of painted linen probably belonging to a shroud or mummy wrapper, with frontal male portrait executed in red pigment on undyed linen. The piece is a unique testimony of Egyptian funerary painting of the Ptolemaic period, a time when the pharaonic tradition coexisted with new formal sensibilities that emerged in the Hellenistic context.

The face, with a serene expression and idealized features, preserves elements typical of traditional Egyptian iconography: almond-shaped eyes with cosmetic lines, tripartite wig, ceremonial beard and large decorated necklace. On the head there are motifs of solar and protective character, possibly linked to divine or apotropaic attributes, common in funerary textiles intended to cover and protect the mummified body.

The composition responds to a more symbolic than portrait conception: it does not seek a naturalistic individualization, but the ideal representation of the deceased in a state of protection, permanence and transit to eternal life. In this sense, the painted linen acted as a substitute and sacred image of the mummified individual, integrating identity, ritual and hope for regeneration.

The provenance adds special interest to the work: its link to Charles Dikran Kelekian places it in one of the most relevant historical circuits of Egyptian antiquities collecting in New York, while its passage through the collection of Leo and Blanche Manso reinforces its trajectory within international private collecting.