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Material : Encaustic Painting and Tempera on Wood
Width : 23 Height : 39 . 5
Period : ROMAN PERIOD
This portrait with the face of a man dates back to the Roman Period (early 3rd century AD) . A great corpus of portraits painted on wood known as the "Fayum portraits" and plaster masks 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 . While plaster masks were placed on the mummy over the area of the face , portraits were either placed among the bandages wrapping the deceased's mummy or on the linen shrouds .
This example of encaustic Fayum portraits on wood denotes a high taste of decoration and a skillfully-organized color arrangement . A blend of tempera and encaustic painting was not quite common at that time; but it proved successful at this portrait . With delicate tones , the face portrayed shows in detail the most expressive African facial features of a man with a dark skin . It is skillfully framed with curly black hair over the head as well as trimmed beard and mustache . A scarf (and no longer the Pharaonic wig) encircles the young man's neck . The graceful color contrast made with the pale gray background with the black hair and white garment adds to the beauty of the young man's portraiture .
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