Elderly Man Flanked by Egyptian Gods

This funerary painting of an elderly man is an example of a Fayum portrait. These portraits of Greco-Egyptian elites during Roman Imperial rule functioned as mummy masks for the deceased person.

The portraits required expensive materials and craftsmanship to produce, but there are class distinctions in materials. Many artists used encaustic, which was costly and labor-intensive. This portrait is in tempera, which was easier to produce and use. The resulting portrait is cheaper, but lacks the visual depth and permanence of encaustic.

Tempera has a longer history in Egyptian art than encaustic. It is suited to the two-dimensional style of hieroglyphics. Fittingly, the man is flanked by two Egyptian gods, the falcon god Horus and a ram representing the soul of Re or Khnum. They were drawn in outline, without shading or coloring, after the rest of the portrait.

Read more on Egyptian religious symbolism in funerary portraiture.