APPEAR Project

A collaborative exploration of ancient panel-painting production that facilitates international scholarly exchange

Project Details

Composite image of a Mummy Portrait of a Woman being analyzed with a scanner in a lab, the original artwork, and a detail of the same portrait pixellated red, green, and blue from a visible light scan

(left) Mummy Portrait of a Woman (81.AP.42) being analyzed using a macro-X-ray fluorescence (XRF) scanner. (center) Detail of same artwork under visible light. (right) Detail of XRF map of same artwork revealing the distribution and relative concentration of lead-based pigments used in painting the portrait (red areas indicate high levels, blue low). Analysis and imaging by the Getty Conservation Institute.

About

Goal

The APPEAR (Ancient Panel Paintings: Examination, Analysis, and Research) Project broadens our understanding of the technical aspects of how ancient panel paintings—primarily mummy portraits, and related artifacts such as shrouds, shrines, and complete portrait mummies—were made. We aim to discover how they were constructed and by whom. A central goal is to widely disseminate the discoveries emerging from APPEAR—to scholars, museums, and the public— and create access to a collaborative body of information for comparative studies.

Outcomes

A new database launched in 2013 containing historic, technical, and analytical information has made it possible to share new findings about ancient panel paintings with participating scholars and institutions. The database promotes comparisons among artifacts and helps develop a broader understanding of the production, materials, workshop and artistic methods that created ancient panel paintings.

The project has fostered a community in which conservation professionals, art historians, classicists, and Egyptologists network, exchange information, and provide guidance and support to colleagues or institutions with fewer resources. This community gathered in person for the first time in 2018 for a conference at the Getty Villa, and again in 2022 in Amsterdam.

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