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Material : Encaustic Painting on Wood
Width : 21 . 5 Height : 41
Found in : Fayum ()
Period : ROMAN PERIOD
Found in Fayum , this portrait of a young man dates back to the Roman Period (1st 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 encaustic painting is an example of the Fayum Portraits made on wood . With delicate tones , the face portrayed shows in detail the most expressive African facial features of a man with a dark skin . His face is framed with densely-clustered large ringlets on the head , a mustache , and a curly thick black beard down the chin . This hairstyle is faithful to that one prevailing in the Roman Period under the reign of Emperor Hadrian . The portrait denotes a high taste of decoration with a skillfully-organized color arrangement and light contrast . The elegant white tunic the darktoned man wears has some brown touches . 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 . Most apparent is the disfigurement of the right eye; it is probable that it was either caused accidentally by the artist himself or the panel itself had suffered any sort of damage or inappropriate preservation conditions .
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