Arcadópolis
Elderly Man Flanked by Egyptian Gods
Fayum mummy portraits, c. 250
What you see
The old man looks straight out from a panel cut in the shape of a bust. He has short white hair, a deeply lined forehead, large eyes and a short white beard. Beside his shoulders, drawn in fine line, are a crowned ram on the left and a falcon on the right. He wears a cream tunic with two dark stripes.
The face is a reddish orange, its wrinkles traced in dark lines, with white highlights on the brow and nose. The ground is a grayish brown, and the tunic is marked with stains. Notice the small holes in the panel, one at the top, two beside the animals and two at the bottom, and for the diamond pattern on the stripes.
About Fayum mummy portraits
The Fayum portraits are some 900 portraits painted on wooden panels in Roman Egypt between the 1st and 3rd centuries AD by artists whose names we do not know. They were placed over the face of the mummy, held in place by the linen wrappings, and painted in encaustic (beeswax mixed with pigments) or tempera with striking realism. They are one of the largest groups of panel paintings to survive from classical antiquity, and their frontal gaze foreshadows icon painting.
More by Fayum mummy portraits
Portrait of the Boy Eutyches
Portrait of a Young Woman in Red
Funerary Portrait of a Young Girl
Portrait of a Thin-Faced, Bearded Man
Portrait of a Man with a Mole on His Nose
Portrait of a Young Woman with a Gilded Wreath
Portrait of a Thin-Faced Man
Funerary Portrait of a Woman
Funerary Panel of a Man
Mummy with an Inserted Panel Portrait of a Youth
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