Details

Object type

portrait

Place Associated

Africa, Egypt, Middle Egypt, Faiyum, Hawara (place found)

Date

Roman Period, circa 100-300

Materials

paint

Dimensions

overall: 420 x 184 mm

Description

This painted Egyptian portrait, dating from the mid Roman period about 100-300 AD, was excavated by Flinders Petrie at Hawera in 1911. The pigments were mixed with beeswax (encaustic) and painted on a panel of lime-wood, imported from northern Europe. The young man depicted is an ephoebe who has just reached the age of political maturity. He wears a white tunic with a vertical purple stripe and mantle over his left shoulder and looks surprisingly modern with his short hair, moustache and beard.

When Egypt was part of the Roman Empire, realistic portraits of the deceased were often placed over the faces of mummies. They are unique survivals from the classical world of a sophisticated tradition of portrait painting. Such examples of painting from the Classical world uniquely survive in this medium from Roman Egypt and predate the emergence of icon portraiture by many centuries. This object is therefore of international significance as a rare and sophisticated survival of early Greek portrait painting, with a known provenance history. It is only one of two such objects in Glasgow Museums’ collection.

Credit Line/Donor

Loaned by Miss May Buchanan, 1912

ID Number

36.a.1912

Location

Kelvingrove Ancient Egypt Gallery