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Material : Encaustic Painting on Wood
Diameter : 61
Found in : Antinoopolis (1899)
Period : ROMAN PERIOD
Archeologist : M . GAYET
Found in Antinoopolis by M . Gayet , this portrait of a young man dates back to the Roman Period (2nd century AD) . A great corpus of portraits painted on wood known as the "Fayum portraits" was made during the Roman imperial era . The Roman taste had a particular interest in making portraits that stand for iconographic realism . Such a tendency became the most successful expression of the reciprocal penetration of Egyptian and Roman cultures that were far more integrated in death than in life . Portraits were either placed among the bandages wrapping the deceased's mummy or on the linen shrouds .
This example of the Fayum encaustic paintings made on wood depicts two brothers . The panel is a witness on this significant phase in the history of Egypt . Mixed marriages among the Egyptians and Romans and Greeks were prevailing . This explains the apparent differences in the outer physical characteristics of the two figures .
The dark-toned man on the right has impressive Negroid facial expressions on his face . He is depicted wearing a white garment , with densely clustered black hair ringlets with a shaved beard and a thin-lined moustache over his fleshy mouth . Most impressive is the look he gives , which shows a great dissatisfied gaze the viewer first notices .
The man on the left , on the other hand , wears more elegant and elaborate dress decorated with embroidery . A fine clasp fastens the red scarf with the white cloak . Unlike his brother , this man wears a more innocent expression on his childlike face .
Above each of the two brothers , there is a depiction of a god . The deity depicted holding a wand and wearing winged sandals is god Mercury , the Roman equivalent for the Greek god Hermes . The other god appears wearing a triple wig with a crown of rays over his head .
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