SPQR Blues sketch(es) of the day: a scribbled flashback

[spqrblues]

A random Egyptian night, some years ago...




There's evidence from the wear and scuffing on mummies (of ordinary Graeco-Roman-Egyptian folks) that they were kept upright in or near the home, or else were brought out and set up for special occasions, until eventually being buried, maybe after a generation or two.
 

Comments

[esmerelda-ogg.livejournal.com]

Are those Felix's little brothers or sisters next to Father? (We're lucky. We can forget how many children didn't grow up back then.)

[meritahut.livejournal.com]

It's only mentioned in passing here and there, but Felix had an older brother who died young (Rufus (http://spqrblues.com/IV/comic/chapter-ii-84/)) and a younger brother (name not mentioned) who died of the same illness as his parents (http://spqrblues.com/IV/comic/chapter-ii-87/). And, given the child and infant mortality rates, there are likely to have been more siblings.

Making Felix technically the middle child but raised mostly as the older brother. That also isn't mentioned specifically, but I had it in mind when Domitian tries to be all simpatico with Felix (http://spqrblues.com/IV/comic/chapter-ii-55/) about both of them being oppressed younger brothers.

[vesta-aurelia.livejournal.com]

so, wrapped up.

[corvideye.livejournal.com]

Don't I know you from somewhere? ;)

[vesta-aurelia.livejournal.com]

maaaaaaayyyybeeeee.... :D

[palusbuteo.livejournal.com]

Fayum/Encaustic portraits are incredibly fascinating and intriguing but also creepy and sad at the same time. The cross-pollination of the Egyptian, Greek and Roman funerary practices is I think indelible and unique, both in the ancient world and in some contrast to today.

[meritahut.livejournal.com]

I was inspired to try working in encaustic by the fascinating realism of some of the portraits. Maybe especially creepy and sad are the portraits that are still attached to their mummy-wrapped mortal remains.

I still don't have the hang of either soft-paste or hot-wax encaustic, and working with ancient-style materials is tricky, from a set up and ventilation standpoint. I'd like to keep working at it.

The fusion of funerary practices is fascinating too of course. And the variety, from taboos where on burial was allowed to burials under the house floor to being treated as litter to a mummy in the house, which was hard for me to wrap my head around at first. But there are similar traditions of keeping a mummy at home or bringing it out for special meals in some places today, and seeing modern examples of that helped me connect. I was hoping to show a little bit of cultural range in the little Antonian tomb.

Personally I lean toward "jump in fiery caldera," though a splashy pyramid-shape monument ringed by weeping angel statues has a certain appeal too. I'll have to start saving up.