Funerary Panel of a Man

This painting of a young man is a Fayum portrait, a type of funerary portrait commissioned by an elite Greco-Egyptian community in Roman Imperial Egypt. It would have been attached to his mummy.

The community was descended from both native Egyptians and Greek officials and settlers who had come to Egypt during the Ptolemaic Dynasty. Accordingly, their funerary art incorporated both Egyptian — the mummy and mummy mask — and Greco-Roman — the highly individualized style of portraiture — elements. The man’s deep brown eyes are outlined in dark pigment — likely representing the use of kohl, an ancient Egyptian cosmetic.

The artist or artists painted this portrait in encaustic, a mix of pigment and wax, on linen. Most existing Fayum portraits were painted on wood; we can see from the damage to this one that linen is a less durable medium.