Linen Tunic of a Child
6th-8th century
This child’s tunic is a rare survival of a complete unadorned tunic. As with much art and architecture, usually the most spectacular objects survive. Collectors, excavators, and others tend to prefer preserving the Mona Lisas or Starry Nights of the world, rather than, say, the doodles of ordinary schoolchildren. However, spectacular objects (often made for and utilized by society’s powerful) tend to reveal more about their elite creators, rather than the facets of daily life in any given historical period. In looking at this tunic, we may imagine what an ordinary child would have worn in 6th-to-8th-century Egypt on any given day. This rare glimpse into everyday life allows historians greater access to the experiences of ordinary people in the period.
Contrast this tunic with the spectacular red tunic at the Victoria and Albert (291-1891), as well as the green hooded child's tunic at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (27.239).
Artwork Details
Title:
Linen Tunic of a Child
Date:
6th-8th century
Geography:
Egypt
Classification:
Textile
Materials:
Linen
Dimensions:
66 x 84 cm (26 x 33 in)
Repository:
McMullen Museum of Art, Boston College, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Accession Number:
McMullen 2018.11
Tellalian Number:
Tellalian 1982-00413
Donor:
Barbara and Donald Tellalian
Provenance:
Purchased at auction, Sotheby's, New York, NY on 26 May 1982. Antiquities, Pre-Columbian, Ethnographic & Later Works of Art, Lot #362A.
Exhibition History:
McMullen Museum of Art, Boston College. Roman in the Provinces: Art on the Periphery of Empire, 14 February - 31 May 2015. https://www.bc.edu/sites/artmuseum/exhibitions/rip/
Publication History:
Nicgorski, Ann M. “The Fate of Serapis: A Paradigm for Transformations in the Culture and Art of Late Roman Egypt.” In Roman in the Provinces: Art on the Periphery of Empire, edited by Lisa R. Brody and Gail L. Hoffman, 153–66, plate 136. Boston College: McMullen Museum of Art, distributed by the University of Chicago Press, 2014.
Conservation History:
June 1982: Textile Conservation Center, North Andover, MA.