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Was the central figure in The Scream modeled on an Inca mummy?
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Edvard Munch
Photograph of Norwegian artist Edvard Munch standing in snow.
It is conjectured that the central figure in Edvard Munch's iconic painting The Scream was modeled on an Inca mummy.1
Art historians suggest that Munch may have encountered this figure at a museum in Paris while attending the World's Fair in 1889. The painting, which serves as a powerful representation of modern spiritual anguish, features a swaying, corpselike form with wide eyes and a mouth opened in a gaping oval, features that align with the appearance of such a mummy.12