3-035-804 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Mummy Portrait of a Bearded Man, A.D. 140-160. Additional Info: In Roman Egypt, funerary portraits were painted on panels to be placed over the faces of the dead and encased within the wrappings of mummies in preparation for burial. The lush, full beard, luxuriant hair and deeply intense gaze of this youthful man are stylistic features commensurate with male portrait sculpture of the Antonine period (AD 138-192). This suggests a date in the mid-second century, for which Carbon-14 dating of the textiles adhering to the panel provides further support.