Portrait of a gray-haired man on a wooden board.
Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College
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Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College

This painting shows the bust of a man on a long, hexagonal wooden board. Much of the painted area is in the top three-fourths of the board, with the lowest section blank. The subject of this painting is an older man with the short-cropped gray hair, mustache, and beard. He has almond-shaped, brown eyes, a long, thin nose, and wide lips, all rendered with a relaxed expression. Bunched behind his neck is a length of white cloth from the toga he is wearing. On either side of the neck hole in this garment is a vertical purple border stripe.

Gallery Text

The irregular shaping of the wooden board here helps us imagine the original placement of this portrait over the mummy’s face, affixed with complicated wrappings. The portrait is painted using the encaustic technique, in which pigment is mixed with beeswax, allowing the artist to achieve complex gradations of light and shade and sometimes a luminescence that has been compared to the sheen of oil painting. The man’s hair and beard are trimmed short in the fashion of the mid-third century.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1923.59
Title
Portrait of a man
Classification
Paintings
Work Type
painting
Date
Mid-3rd century CE
Places
Creation Place: Ancient & Byzantine World, Africa, Fayum (Egypt)
Period
Roman Imperial period, Late
Culture
Egyptian
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/292324

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Encaustic on imported European lime wood (Tilia europaea).
Technique
Painted
Dimensions
46 × 20.2 × 2 cm (18 1/8 × 7 15/16 × 13/16 in.)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Denman Waldo Ross, Cambridge, MA, (by 1923), gift; to Fogg Art Museum, 1923.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Gift of Dr. Denman W. Ross
Accession Year
1923
Object Number
1923.59
Division
Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact
am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Publication History

  • Four Fayum Portraits in the Fogg Art Museum, Bulletin of the Fogg Art Museum (1924), II.1
  • Hilde Zaloscer, Porträts aus dem Wüstensand: die Mumienbildnisse aus der Oase Fayum, Verlag A. Schroll & Co., g.m.b.h. (Wien, 1961), p. 60
  • Euphrosyne Doxiadis, The Mysterious Fayum Portraits: Faces from Middle Egypt, Harry N. Abrams, Inc. (New York, NY, 1995)

Exhibition History

  • Roman Gallery Installation (long-term), Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, 09/16/1999 - 01/20/2008
  • Gods in Color: Painted Sculpture of Classical Antiquity, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, 09/22/2007 - 01/20/2008
  • Re-View: S422 Ancient & Byzantine Art & Numismatics, Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, 04/12/2008 - 06/18/2011
  • Ancient to Modern, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 01/31/2012 - 06/01/2013
  • 32Q: 3740 Egyptian, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 11/16/2014 - 06/01/2022
  • Funerary Portraits from Roman Egypt: Facing Forward, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 08/27/2022 - 12/30/2022

Subjects and Contexts

  • Google Art Project
  • Collection Highlights

Related Objects

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art at am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu