Portrait of the Boy Eutyches

This lifelike portrait depicts a young boy wearing a white tunic. The Greek inscription across his chest reads “Eutyches, freedman of Kasanios,” and either “son of Herakleides Evandros” or “Herakleides, son of Evandros.” This portrait would have been attached to the face of the boy’s mummy as a way to preserve him in the afterlife. It’s a later example of a Fayum portrait, a kind of funerary portrait popular among elite Greco-Egyptians in Roman Imperial Egypt.

There is a heavier Greco-Roman influence in the artistic style as compared to earlier Fayum portraits, shown through the three dimensionality and naturalism of the subject’s face. Part of the illusion of depth comes from the portrait’s medium: encaustic paint on wood. Encaustic technique originated among the Greeks. With layers of pigmented wax, the colors take on more dimension, and are preserved for centuries.