Returned to lender The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
Funerary Figure of a Woman
Not on view
Combining Greco-Roman and Egyptian styles, this funerary portrait was originally nestled into an architectural niche. The woman wears a floral garland and holds a ritual container for oil or Nile water. She was likely from a wealthy community in Oxyrhynchus (modern El Bahnasa). While we are not certain what language she spoke, Egyptian was used by most of the population. At the same time, Greek was the main language of written communication in the early Byzantine period, and, like the art of the period, aspects of it inflected the Egyptian language and culture.
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