Mummy Portrait of a Young Man

The young man in this Romano-Egyptian mummy portrait turns his head slightly to his left, thoughtfully gazing into the distance. His short hair and faint moustache suggest that the portrait was painted in the period from about A.D. 100 to 125, when these fashions were in style. Although scholars are not certain, several elements of this portrait indicate its place of origin. The turn of the man's head toward the viewer, the width of the stripe on his tunic, and the way the cloak drapes over his shoulders, as well as the rounded form of the top of the panel itself, find numerous parallels in portraits known to come from the site of Hawara. Hawara was the cemetery of nearby Arsinoe, the main city in the Fayum, where the man in this portrait may have lived.