Portrait of a Man (c. 100-20 CE)
Mummy portrait from Hawara, Egypt
Most mummy portraits that have survived have unfortunately
become separated from the mummies to which they were attached.
Because of this we rarely know the identities of the subjects.
The subject of this portrait, painted in encaustic on limewood,
appears to be a man in his fifties or sixties of strikingly Roman
appearance. He is dressed in a tunic with a violet stripe, or clavus,
and a thick folded mantle. The hair is brushed forward and cropped
in the style of court portraits of the Trajanic period (AD 98-117).
Pink has been used to highlight his nose and lips, and dark brown
to indicate shading and the contours of the face. The portrait gives
the impression of age, authority and austerity. These characteristics
were very important in Rome, and are here represented in a very
Roman manner.
The Mysterious Fayum Portraits
Michael Lahanas
The Fayum Portraits: Greek and Roman painting style, encaustic (εγκαυστική) (from enkaio “to burn-in” ) on
wood, part of the Egyptian culture (funeral portraits). They show the faces of the inhabitants of ancient Egypt at
a period influenced by Greeks and Romans. The Fayum portraits are the best preserved paintings of Antiquity.
Some of these produced by Greeks who worked in Egypt, part of the Greek population that settled in cities like
Alexandria, when Egypt was ruled by Greek kings after the peaceful conquest of Egypt by Alexander the Great.
The portraits, many from Fayum, are from a period when Romans followed the Greeks as rulers and their
influence is shown (for example Roman fashion). Examples were found in various Necropolises: in Memphis
(Saqqara), Philadelphia (Er-Rubayat and ‘Kerke’), Arsinoe (Hawara), Antinoopolis, Panopolis (Akhmim),
Marinael-Alamein, Thebes and el-Hiba (Ankyronpolis) and other places
For the left image: (Diogenes the flute player, a Jew?)
from Portrait-Painting in Ancient Egypt." by Amelia Ann Blanford Edwards: “Finer by far, as a work of art, is the
portrait of a young man named Diogenes He was apparently a professional musician. A small wooden label
found with the mummy-case calls him "Diogenes of the Flute of Arsinoe;" while a second inscription, written in
ink upon one of the mummy-wrappings, describes him as "Diogenes who abode at the Harp when he was
alive." From these it is evident that he was a flautist, born in the city of Arsinoe, and that when he came to live at
Hawara, he lodged at the sign of the Harp. The panel, like too many others, is badly cracked; but the head is so
characteristic, and the expression so fine, that not even this blemish mars its effect. There is a set look in the
face, as of some solemn purpose to be fulfilled; and the eyes arrest us, like the eyes of a living man. The hair is
very thick and curly, and the features are distinctly Jewish in type. That he should be a Jew would be quite in
accordance with his profession for the gift of music has ever been an inheritance of the children of Israel. “
The right image: Portrait of a woman, probably from er-Rubayat, c. 160-170 AD, British Museum, London
From Euphrosyne Doxiadis (1995): The Mysterious Fayum Portraits: Faces from Ancient Egypt. Paintings from
the 1st century BC to 3rd century AD. The climate in Egypt and the conditions there allowed these paintings to
survive. Similar Hellenistic – Egyptian paintings were produced in many places of the Roman Empire but only in
Fayum many examples were found. The image of a woman could be similar to the portraits produced by Iaia of
Cyzicus, a woman Greek painter. According to Pliny the Elder she worked in Rome producing paintings of
women and a self-portait. These portraits on wooden panels included in mummies probably represent the
deceased. The instruments used:
• cauter or cauterium (καυτήρ, καυτήριον), an instrument used to fix the colors
• penicillum or penicill ( ράβδιον), a brush
• cestrum (κέστρον), a (probably hot) graver
How and if these instruments as Pliny mentions were used is actually not knownas the opinions of the experts
differ. As the portraits show young men and women either they show the persons when they were young or it
shows also that the life expectancy at that time was rather small. The encausting technique was a Greek
method used in Egypt to produce these brilliant paintings. The method originated in Classical Greece in the fifth
and fourth centuries BC.
Among these portraits there is a young boy with a Greek name, Eutyhes . His name probably is derived from eu
and tyhe which means good and luck or lucky and in modern Greek also happy. But he was probably not so
lucky and died very young probably around 50-100 AD. Due to the influence of the Greeks in Egypt for around
300 years and later the Romans many persons shown have Greek names and wear Roman clothes but their
religion is Egyptian.