Mummy Portrait of a Boy

Artisan: Feast of Fools (Heather Randall)
Date: 2021
Dimensions: 40 x 20 x 3 mm. / 1 ⅝ x ¾ x ⅛ inches (height x width x depth)
Inventory number: 2021.063
Intended Room: Museum
Category: Antiquities

When we first thought that Quartermaine Hall could have a museum, I wasn’t sure whether I’d be able to find any miniature antiquities. Imagine my delight when I discovered the miniature mummy portraits created by Heather Randall of Feast of Fools. This is a copy of a mummy portrait at the Met, a favourite of mine. The boy is named Eutyches and he died in Roman-occupied Egypt in 100-150 AD. He had formerly been a slave of a man named Kasanios, who had manumitted him, and the portrait bears the inscription ‘Eutyches, freedman of Kasanios’, which runs along the top of the boy’s tunic.

For another mummy portrait by Feast of Fools, also based on an example at the Met, see here.