Value, Optics, Materiality: A Painted Mummy-Case Footboard at the Harvard Art Museums

The Harvard Art Museums received a gift of an Egyptian mummy case footboard in 2017. The footboard is primed on all sides with light neutral-colored paint; an Apis bull is depicted running left to right with a mummy on its back. The wooden panel is comprised of two planks joined horizontally with dowels and had at some point been cracked into three pieces, then rejoined and restored in order to present it as a “painting,” presumably for market. Materials analysis revealed ancient pigments in the restoration paint which appear to be applied over modern fill material. How and why had a modern restorer gained access to these pigments? How long ago could the restoration have taken place? In this paper we treat these technical questions, as well as theoretical questions about the optics of artifacts prepared for the market; the ancient craft processes and materiality this object; and the value of fragmentary traces of the ancient past as learning tools in the museum space.