Materials Lab Workshop: Making Faces

This workshop accompanies the exhibition Funerary Portraits from Roman Egypt: Facing Forward, which invites viewers to ask more about the complicated histories of these portraits and the people they depict. The exhibition explores what can be learned about the artistic process and current condition of these works through scientific analysis and technical research conducted by staff in the Harvard Art Museums’ Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies. Funerary Portraits is on view through December 30, 2022.

In this two-part workshop, join us first in the exhibition galleries with Francesca Bewer and Sarah Eisen for a close look at the portraits and learn what our curators, conservators, and scientists have discovered about them. Then take that experience to the Materials Lab, where you’ll make your own version of an ancient tempera painting using some of the same materials and techniques used by Roman-period artists. This workshop aims to honor and remember the woman in the ancient portrait we will copy, and to celebrate the relationship between artist and sitter that allowed the woman’s essence to be captured so powerfully.