Arcadópolis
Portrait of a Thin-Faced, Bearded Man
Fayum mummy portraits, 160–180
What you see
A man looks straight out from a panel with a gently curved top. His thick black curls form a wide mass around the head, and a short, dense beard frames his long face. His large brown eyes are underlined by deep shadows. Below, a white tunic opens at the neck, with a pink stripe on the left.
The skin is built from ochres and browns, with a pale line running down the bridge of the nose. The gray-green ground lets the vertical grain of the wood show through, even across the face. Look at the curls on the forehead, drawn one by one as small loops, and at the strip of bare wood at the bottom, marked with reddish stains.
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 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
Elderly Man Flanked by Egyptian Gods
Mummy with an Inserted Panel Portrait of a Youth
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