Teach with Collections: Mummy portrait of a bearded young man

The practice of affixing a lifelike image of the deceased to a mummy cartonnage, or coffin, was one of many Egyptian traditions adopted by the Romans when they added Egypt to their empire. In this painted portrait of a young man, the Roman penchant for realism is melded with traditional Egyptian funerary practice. The wooden board would have been secured over the face by the linen wrappings shrouding the body. Such images were thought to magically preserve the individual character of the soul, and they also functioned as memorials, installed for periods in the courtyards of private homes. These works are often called "Faiyum portraits," as large numbers of them have been discovered in cemeteries in the Faiyum, an area on the west bank of the Nile, south of Cairo. Although the youth's features have an individual character, this may not be a true portrait; the oversized eyes, for example, occur in most Fayum portraits. The youth's dark skin and curly hair hint at the multiethnic composition of Roman Egypt, where, in the great metropolis of Alexandria, Romans mixed with Greeks, Jews, and native Egyptians to form a cosmopolitan society with its own distinctive blend of cultural traditions.

Conversation prompts: 1. Describe the surface texture achieved with the technique of encaustic. If the image of the bearded youth is a type, and not a true portrait, how is the memory of an individual evoked?

2. What does the intimate connection between the portrait and the actual face of the deceased suggest about Roman and Egyptian funerary beliefs?