Dionysus

The picture of the god Dionysus was created on a separate piece of wool fabric in the so-called Coptic weaving technique and sewn onto a natural-coloured linen sheet. The identity of the subject is clearly indicated by the Greek inscription above the head. An edging of acanthus tendrils frames the picture.The Greek god Dionysus was equated with the Egyptian god Osiris and was a popular motif in Egypt in late antiquity. According to the classical myth, Theseus abandoned Ariadne on the Greek island of Naxos, where Dionysus found her and made her his bride. The youthful Dionysus is looking to the left. His blond curls fall down the back of his neck, and his head is emphasised by a golden-yellow halo. He is wearing a blue mantle fastened at his right shoulder with a disc fibula. Executed in the Hellenistic tradition, the central picture has a broad surface and a few heavily bordered details. The characteristic large eyes, straight nose, heart-shaped mouth and spiral curls are depicted in a simplified manner. The face is pale pink; the folds of the mantle are sculpturally accentuated with thin lines. Symbolic offertility and expectation of life in the Beyond are the fruit, buds, flowers and birds in the multi-coloured arabesques of the edging. The precious textile probably comes from a necropolis in the Upper Egyptian city of Panopolis on the eastern bank of the Nile. The fragment was part of a larger sheet of fabric – originally probably an ornamental bedspread or a wall hanging – later used as a shroud for the deceased.
@ Kurt Gschwantler, Alfred Bernhard-Walcher, Manuela Laubenberger, Georg Plattner, Karoline Zhuber-Okrog, Masterpieces in the Collection of Greek and Roman Antiquities. A Brief Guide to the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna 2011