Asset number
314773001
Description
Portrait of a man in encaustic on limewood: the panel is cut down at the sides as well as at the top. A crack extends from top to bottom through the centre. The lower part was left unpainted. The surface of this expressive portrait was worked with a spatula, and the background is more thickly rendered with brush-strokes than is usual. The wax was remelted by Petrie, and a thin coat of paraffin wax was applied to conserve the surface. The mummy was wrapped in coarse linen, which has left diagonal impressions framing the portrait, so only the face and upper neck were visible. The hair, black and cropped close to the head, is very similar to Roman court portraiture of the Trajanic period, as is the shape and contouring of the face, which confronts the viewer directly in the Roman manner. Short black brushstrokes on the chin may indicate stubble. The outline of the face is drawn in reddish brown, also used to part the lips. The face is painted in ochre and burnt sienna tones, with highlights in pink and cream. The brown eyes are deeply recessed and shaded.
© The Trustees of the British Museum
Using this image
Commercial use
To license images for charged-for journals and publications, and other commercial uses, please contact British Museum Images.
Contact BM images
Non-commercial use
You are permitted to use images from the British Museum website subject to our terms of use.
The image will be released to you under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license. You can read more about the British Museum and Creative Commons here.
Download this image
New photography
If you cannot see an image that you want on the British Museum website, you can order new photography from us.
Order new image